INDIAN SOCIETY : STRUCTURE AND CHANGE

A. Introducing Indian Society:

(i) Perspectives on the study of Indian society:
(a) Indology (GS. Ghurye).
(b) Structural functionalism (M N Srinivas).
(c) Marxist sociology ( A R Desai).
(ii) Impact of colonial rule on Indian society :
(a) Social background of Indian nationalism.
(b) Modernization of Indian tradition.
(c) Protests and movements during the colonial period.
(d) Social reforms
B. Social Structure:
(i) Rural and Agrarian Social Structure:
(a) The idea of Indian village and village studies-
(b) Agrarian social structure -
evolution of land tenure system, land reforms.
(ii) Caste System:
(a) Perspectives on the study of caste systems: GS Ghurye, M N Srinivas, Louis
Dumont, Andre Beteille.
(b) Features of caste system.
(c) Untouchability - forms and perspectives
(iii) Tribal communities in India:
(a) Definitional problems.
(b) Geographical spread.
(c) Colonial policies and tribes.
(d) Issues of integration and autonomy.
(iv) Social Classes in India:
(a) Agrarian class structure.
(b) Industrial class structure.
(c) Middle classes in India.
(v) Systems of Kinship in India:
(a) Lineage and descent in India.
(b) Types of kinship systems.
(c) Family and marriage in India.
(d) Household dimensions of the family.
(e) Patriarchy, entitlements and sexual division of labour.
(vi) Religion and Society:
(a) Religious communities in India.
(b) Problems of religious minorities.
C. Social Changes in India:
(i) Visions of Social Change in India:
(a) Idea of development planning and mixed economy.
(b) Constitution, law and social change.
(c) Education and social change.
(ii) Rural and Agrarian transformation in India:
(a) Programmes of rural development, Community Development Programme,
cooperatives, poverty alleviation schemes.
(b) Green revolution and social change.
(c) Changing modes of production in Indian agriculture .
(d) Problems of rural labour, bondage, migration.
(iii) Industrialization and Urbanisation in India:
(a) Evolution of modern industry in India.
(b) Growth of urban settlements in India.
(c) Working class: structure, growth, class mobilization.
(d) Informal sector, child labour
(e) Slums and deprivation in urban areas.
(iv) Politics and Society:
(a) Nation, democracy and citizenship.
(b) Political parties, pressure groups , social and political elite.
(c) Regionalism and decentralization of power.
(d) Secularization
(v) Social Movements in Modern India:
(a) Peasants and farmers movements.
(b) Women’s movement.
(c) Backward classes & Dalit movement.
(d) Environmental movements.
(e) Ethnicity and Identity movements.
(vi) Population Dynamics: 381
(a) Population size, growth, composition and distribution.
(b) Components of population growth: birth, death, migration.
(c) Population policy and family planning.
(d) Emerging issues: ageing, sex ratios, child and infant mortality, reproductive
health.
(vii) Challenges of Social Transformation:
(a) Crisis of development: displacement, environmental problems and
sustainability.
(b) Poverty, deprivation and inequalities.
(c) Violence against women.
(d) Caste conflicts.
(e) Ethnic conflicts, communalism, religious revivalism.
(f) Illiteracy and disparities in education.
 Perspectives on the study of Indian society
Indology (GS. Ghurye)

1. Indology is branch of social sciences dealing with interpretation of ancient

texts and linguistic studies to understand Ancient Indian culture.
2. According to this Perspective Man is India is not an individual who is
independent and rationally guided by writs. Rather man India is a person who
is having committeemen to his culture.

Characteristics of lndological Approach

1. The Indological approach rested on the assumption that historically, Indian society
and culture are unique. This uniqueness of Indian society could be grasped better
through the texts.
2. Indological approach refers to the historical and comparative method based on
Indian texts in the study of Indian society.
3. Indologists use ancient history, epics, religious manuscripts and texts etc. in the
study of Indian social institutions.
4. The texts which indologists refer basically included the classical ancient literature of
ancient Indian society such as Vedas, Puranas, Manu Smriti, Ramayana,
Mahabharata and others. Indologists analyse social phenomena by interpreting the
classical texts.
5. Apart from Sanskrit scholars and Indologists, many sociologists have also used
extensively traditional text to study Indian society.Therefore, it is called as “textual
view” or “textual perspective” of social phenomena as it depends upon texts.

Thus, textual variety of sociology that emerged in the late 1970s marks a noticeable shift
from the European to the American tradition of social anthropology. The studies
conducted during this period cover a wide range of subjects, such as social structure and
relationships, cultural values, kinship, ideology, cultural transactions and symbolism of life
and the world Most of these studies are based on textual materials either drawn from
epics, legends, myths or from the folk traditions and other symbolic forms of culture. Most
of them have been published in ‘Contribution to Indian Sociology’ edited by T.N. Madan. A
good number of studies following this method have been done by foreign-based scholars.

An Indological and culturological approach has also been the hallmark of several
sociologists. They have hammered against the acceptance of theoretical and
methodological orientations of the western countries. These scholars emphasized the role
of traditions, groups rather than individual as the basis of social relations and religion,
ethics and philosophy as the basis of social organization.

1. Yogendra Singh has argued that when field studies in many areas of their interest in
India became difficult, textual analysis, either of classics or ethics or field notes from
an earlier data, represented a fruitful basis for continued analysis of Indian
structure and tradition in the1970s and 1980s.
2. R.N. Saxena agrees which this Indological or scriptural basis of studying Indian
society. He stressed on the role of the concepts of Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha.
3. Mackivm marmot and Milton singer applied Robert Concept of little community
in India. Ideological perspective helped them in developing concept of little
tradition and great tradition.
 4. Dumont and Pocock emphasize the utility of Indological formulations.Indology is
representative of people’s behaviour or that guides people’s behaviour in a
significant way.
5. The use of the Indobgical approach during the early formative years of Indian
sociology and social anthropology is seen in the works of G.S Ghurye, Louis
Dumont, K.M. Kapadia, P.H. Prabhu and Irawati Karve have tried to explore
Hindu social institutions and practices, either with reference to religious texts or
through the analysis of contemporary practices.
6. Initially Sir William Jones established the AsiaticSociety of Bengal in 1787 and also
introduced the study of Sanskrit and Indology.

G. S. GHURYE (1893-1983)
Govind Sadashiv Ghurye is remembered for his marked contribution in the field of
Indian sociology: He has often been acclaimed as the father of Indian sociology’, ‘the
doyen of Indian sociologists’ or ‘the symbol of sociological creativenesses. Ghurye
had been engaged in building up; almost single-handedly, the entire first
generations of Indian sociologists in post-independence period M.N. Srinivas has
rightly said, “Nothing disguises the fact that Ghurye was a giant”. He is justifiably
considered the doyen of Indian Sociology. On his return from Cambridge, where he wrote
his doctoral dissertation under W.H.R. Rivers and later A.C. Haddon, Ghurye succeeded Sir
Patric Geddes as Head of Department of Sociology in the University of Bombay in 1924. He
continued to head the Department until his retirement in 1959.After retirement, he was
designated the first Emeritus Professor in the University of Bombay.

Ghurye’s contribution to the development of sociology and anthropology in India is

enormous and multifaceted. A prolific writer, Ghurye wrote 32 books and scores of
papers, which cover such wide-ranging themes as kinship and marriage,
urbanization, ascetic traditions, tribal life, demography, architecture and literature.

1. Ghurye played a key rob in the professionalisation of sociology by founding the

Indian Sociological Society and its journal Sociological Bulletin. In addition, he
encouraged and trained a large number of talented students who, in turn, advanced
the frontiers of sociological and anthropological research in the country.With his
own voluminous output and through the researches of his able students Ghurye
embarked on an ambitious project of mapping out the ethnographic landscape of
India.
2. G.S Ghurye is considered founder of sociology in India. He wrote on broad range of
themes including tribes, kinship, family and marriage, culture and civilization and
sociology of conflict and integration. One of the major themes that Ghurye worked
on was the tribal or aboriginal culture. It was his writings on this subject and his
debate with Verrier Elwin first made him known outside sociology and the
academic world.
3. Many British administrator-anthropologists were especially interested in tribes in
India and believed them to be primitive people with a distinctive culture far from
mainstream Hinduism.They also believed them to be simple people suffering from
exploitation and cultural degradation through contact with Hindu culture and
society. Ghurye countered this view by saying that these ill effects were not specific
to tribal cultures but were common to all the backward and downtrodden sections
of the society.
Theoretical Approach of Ghurye:
Ghurye’s rigour and discipline are now legendary in Indian sociological circles. In the
application of theories to empirical exercises or in the use of methodologies for data
collection that legendary rigour is not somehow reflected. To put it differently, Ghurye was
not dogmatic in the use of theory and methodology. He seems to have believed in
practicing and encouraging disciplined ecclecticism in theory and methodology. Despite
his training at Cambridge under W.H.R. Rivers and his broad acceptance of the structural-
functional approach, Ghurye did not strictly conform to the functionalist tradition when
interpreting the complex facets of Indian society and culture, which he chose to,
investigate.

The pioneers of Indian sociology were ‘armchair’ or ‘lecture-ism’ sociologists. But

Ghurye had conducted village, town and community studies.

Srinivas and Panini are of the view that “Ghurye insisted on fieldwork, though he
himself was an armchair scholar”. This was not intended as a pejorative comment, but it
reflected the tremendous premium placed on single-handed ‘anthropological fieldwork’.
Therefore, it may be said that although trained in the craft of Indology, Ghurye was not
averse to the fieldwork traditions of social and cultural anthropology. His field
survey of ‘Sex Habits of Middle Class People’ in Bombay and the monograph on the
Mahadev Kolis demonstrated Ghurye was far from promoting an armchair textual
scholarship. He was an empirical field worker also. Later generations of Indian
sociologists and social anthropologists uses Ghurye’s inexhaustible themes for their
researches.

Few Marked Characteristics of Ghurye’s Theoretical Approach:

1. Ghurye was a practitioner of ‘theoretical pluralism’. Basically interested in

inductive empirical exercises and depicting Indian social reality using any source
material – primarily Indological – his theoretical position bordered on laissez-faire.
2. Similarly, when Ghurye conducted survey-type research involving primary
data collection, he did not conform to accepted methodological canons. He
often ventured into generalization on the basis of scanty and unrepresentative
evidence, e.g., Social Tensions in India.
3. Ghurye’s flexible approach to theory and methodology in sociology and social
anthropology was born of his faith in intellectual freedom, which is reflected in
the diverse theoretical and methodological approaches that his research students
pursued in their works.
4. Ghurye also used historical and comparative methods in his studies which have
also been followed by his students.
 Ghurye Considers that ’Vidya’ is not just knowledge offered to people in search of
embayment but it is essential to transform an instinctive human being into
culturally sensible person.
 This knowledge was given by teacher to student and preacher to masses through
oral traditions for example. Vedas were source of knowledge up to1st and 2nd
century be. From1st to 2nd century AD they were replayed by puranas. In 3rd and
4th century source of knowledge were samhita and Smritis, In 4th 5th century AD,
the source of knowledge was jataka (Buddhist literature), from 6th to 9th century
AD, It was Vyakarna, Ganit, Mimansa, Tarkashastra and so on,
  Apter 9th century AD Islamic Invasion broke that continuity Sanskrit was replaced
by persion and culture that was unifying India lost
 Later on, In British rute. Policies of western education, forced conversion led to
further degradation of Vidya (knowledge).
 Ghurye was initially influenced by the reality of diffusionist approach of British
social anthropology but subsequently he switched on to the studies of Indian
society from indological and anthropological perspectives. He emphasised on
Indological approach in the study of social and cultural life in India and elsewhere.
This helps in the understanding of society through literature. Ghurye utilized
literature in sociological studies with his profound knowledge of Sanskrit literature,
extensively quoted from the Vedas, Shastras, epics, and poetry of Kalidas or
Bhavabhuti to shed light on the social and cultural life in India. He made use of the
literature in vernacular, e.g., Marathi, and cited from the literature of modern
writers like Bankimchandra Chatterjee as well.

Brief Assessment of Ghurye:

During his creative period of writing, Indian sociology was engaged in the debate on
tradition and modernity: Ghurye neither entered into this controversy, nor he took up
the issue of the role of tradition in
Indian society. Critics argued that,

1. Ghurye stressed that Indian traditions are actually Hindu traditions. One must know
the Hindu traditions to understand Indian society. The traditions of India are only
Hindu traditions. He did not define traditions.
2. He also did not discuss the impact of modernity. His main concern was the core of
Hindu society. In this sense, the traditions of Indian society have its roots in
scripture, which is a very narrow vision about Indian society.
3. It has been argued that the most of Ghurye’s works are based on textual and
scriptural data.
4. M.N.Srinivas said Ghurye did not studied Indian society in holistic manner and
never gave emphasis on empirical studies.
5. The choice of scripture and the way of writing may have bias towards one section of
society to another.
6. Ghurye further fails to recognize that qualitative change has occurred in modern
India. Past is important for present The question is that how much of the past is
usefuL Some argue that Ghurye did not have this realization as his knowledge of the
India’s past, instead of helping him, stood in his way of analysis.
7. In opinion of S.C Dubey “One can glorify the past but are cannot get back to past if
she is not happy with present.

However, Ghurye was not only concerned with the past evolution of Indian society but also
with its present tensions and problems. The task of sociologists, according to him, is to
explore the social history of past He says, one cannot understand the present without the
reference of the past Ghurye introduced a down-to-earth empiricism in Indian sociology
and social anthropology. He was an ethnographer, who studied tribes and castes of India,
using historical and Indological data. His knowledge of Sanskrit enabled him to study the
religious scriptures in the context of Indian society.
CONCLUSION :

1. Wide range of Ghurye’s work and his intellectual interests has had a profound
influence on the development of sociology in India. Like a discreet butterfly, Ghurye
moved from one theme to another with equal interest, erudition and ability. He
showed India to an inexhaustible mind where sociologists could conduct endless
explorations. He indicated innumerable but unexplored dimensions of Indian
society, culture and social institutions, which would occupy social analysis for
decades if they had both the desire and the ability to know.
2. This rare spirit of inquiry and commitment to advancing the frontiers of knowledge
was one of Ghurye’s precious gifts to Indian sociology. His diversified interests are
also reflected in the great variety of works of his research students produced on
themes ranging from family, kinship structures, marriage, religious sects, ethnic
groups, castes and aboriginals, their customs and institutions, to social tribes and
stratification, caste and class, education and society, the Indian nationalist
movement, social structure and social change in specific villages or religious of
India, and also urbanization, industrialization and related social problems in India.
3. The range of Ghurye’s interests is encyclopaedic. His abiding interest is in the
course of work civilization, in general and in Hindu civilization, in particular. He has
analyzed various aspects like the origin and evolution of caste, the evolution of
Indo-Aryan family structures and its connections with the Indo-European family
structure, and specific institutions like gotra etc.Analysis of the diverse aspects of
the evolution of Indian social history and culture thus constitutes the major
preoccupation of Ghurye.
4. This perspective focus on understanding the ‘ordering’ and ‘patterning’ of the
social world. The focus of attention is mainly the ‘problem of order’ at a
societal level The theoretical and empirical analyses have generally been
based on the assumption that societies can be seen as persistent, cohesive,
stable, generally inherited wholes, differentiated by their culture and social
structural arrangements.
5. Regarding this perspective, A.R. Radcliffe-Brown says that the total social
structure of a society, together with the totality of social usages, constituted a
functional unity, a condition in which all parts work together with a sufficient
degree of harmony or internal consistency.
6. Structural-functionalism is brought into sociology by borrowing concepts from
biological sciences. Structure in biology refers to organisms meaning a relatively
stable arrangement of relationship between different cells and the consequences of
the activity of the various organs in the life process of the organism as their
function.
7. Herbert Spencer goes further and points out that not only analogy exists between
the body social and body human but the same definition of life is applied to both.
8. Durkheim insisted on the importance of structure over elements. He has pointed to
the importance of social morphology or structure.
9. According to Srinivas, “In the recent British social anthropology, the two
important concepts-Structure and function – imply that every society is a whole and
that its various parts are interrelated. In other words, the various groups and
categories which are part of a society are related to each other”.
 This perspective of society stresses the element of harmony and consistency not
those of conflict and contradiction.
 The functional unity of a system is defined in terms of social order.
  In defining society in holistic terms, structural-functional implies that as everything
within the system is necessarily functional for the whole.
 They are the believers of the fact that society is a relatively persisting configuration
of elements and consensus is a ubiquitous element of the social system.
 It treats changes as slow, cumulative process of adjustment to new situations.
 Its explanation consists essentially of pointing out how the different types of activity
fit on top of one another, and are consistent with one another, and how conflicts are
contained and prevented from changing the structure.

Structural functionalism (M N Srinivas)

M.N. Srinivas started structural-functional analysis in sociological and social

anthropological research in India. The structural-functional perspective relies more on
the field work tradition for understanding the social reality so that it can also be
understood as ‘contextual’ or ‘field view’ perspective of the social phenomena.

M.N.SRINIVAS:

1. Mysore Narasimhachar Srinivas (1916-1999]was a world-renowned Indian

sociologist He is mostly known for his work on caste and caste systems, social
stratification and Sanskritisation in southern India. Srinivas’ contribution to the
disciplines of sociology and social anthropology and to public life in India was
unique. It was his capacity to break out of the strong mould in which [the mostly
North American university oriented] area studies had been shaped after the end of
the Second World War on the one hand, and to experiment with the disciplinary
grounding of social anthropology and sociology on the other, which marked his
originality as a social scientist
2. It may be important to point out that it was the conjuncture between Sanskritic
scholarship and the strategic concerns of the Western bloc in the aftermath of the
Second World War which had largely shaped South Asian area studies in the United
States. During the colonial era, the Brahmins or Pandits were acknowledged as
important interlocutors of Hindu laws and customs to the British colonial
administration.The colonial assumptions about an unchanging Indian society led to
the curious assemblage of Sanskrit studies with contemporary issues in most South
Asian departments in the U.S. and elsewhere. It was strongly believed that an Indian
sociology must lie at the conjunction of Indology and sociology.
3. Srinivas’ scholarship was to challenge that dominant paradigm for understanding
Indian society and would in the process, usher newer intellectual frameworks for
understanding Hindu society. His views on the importance of caste in the electoral
processes in India are well known. While some have interpreted this to attest to the
enduring structural principles of social stratification of Indian society, for Srinivas
these symbolized the dynamic changes that were taking place as democracy spreads
and electoral politics became a resource in the local world of village society.
4. By inclination he was not given to utopian constructions – his ideas about justice,
equality and eradication of poverty were rooted in his experiences on the ground
His integrity in the face of demands that his sociology should take into account the
new and radical aspirations was one of the most moving aspects of his writing.
Through use of terms such as “sanskritisation” “dominant caste”, “vertical (inter-
caste) and horizontal (intra-caste) solidarities”, Srinivas sought to capture the fluid
and dynamic essence of caste as a social institution.
 5. As part of his methodological practice, Srinivas strongly advocated ethnographic
research based on fieldwork, but his concept of fieldwork was tied to the notion of
locally bounded sites. Because the vast country like India. Where million of people
with different identities, interests are living and experienced series of
transformations due to exogenous and endogenous factors. So one cannot offer an
absolutist view of India.Thus some of his best papers, such as the paper on
dominant caste and one on a joint family dispute, were largely inspired from his
direct participation (and as a participant observer) in rural life in south India. He
wrote several papers on the themes of national integration, issues of gender, new
technologies, etc. It is really surprising as to why he did not theorize on the
methodological implications of writing on these issues which go beyond the village
and its institutions. His methodology and findings have been used and emulated by
successive researchers who have studied caste in India.
6. Srinivas occupies an eminent place among the first-generation sociologists of India.
He belongs to the galaxy of G.S. Ghurye, R.K. Mukherjee, N.K. Bose and D.P.Mukerji.
Srinivas has initiated the tradition of macro-sociological generalizations on micro-
anthropological insights and of giving a sociological sweep and perspective to
anthropological investigations of small-scale communities. Srinivas wanted to
understand his countrymen not on the basis of western textbooks or from
indigenous sacred texts but from direct observation, field study and field
experience. He made intensive field study of Coorgs between 1940-42. In his
study, he describes the concept of functional unity by Coorgs, mainly
Brahmins ( priests), Kaniyas (astrologers and magicians) and Bannas and
Panikas (low castes). In the context of the study of Rampura also, he describes that
the various castes in a village are interdependent
7. Srinivas studies of caste and religion highlighted not only their structural-
functional aspects, but also the dynamics of the caste system in rural setting.
He proposed conceptual tools like ‘dominant caste’ ‘sanskritization –
westernization’ and ‘secularization’ to understand the realities of intercaste
relations and also to explain their dynamics. The concept of dominant caste’ has
been used in the study of power relations at the village leveL Srinivas presents the
results of a number of studies on the structure and change in the village
society.Srinivas has written articulates in the 1940s on Tamil and Telgu folk-songs.

Srinivas explains two basic concepts to understand our society :

1. Book view (bookish perspective) : Religion, Varna, caste, family, village and
geographical structure are the main elements, which are known as the bases of
Indian society.The knowledge about such elements is gained through sacred texts or
from books. Srinivas calls it book view or bookish perspective. Book view is also
known as Indology, which is not acceptable to Srinivas and he emphasised to the
field view.
2. The book view of caste system upholds the superior position of Brahmins in social
hierarchy while the untouchables occupy the lowest rungs. There is strict restriction
on commensality and mobility. More importantly, The book view is projected as
uncontestable and immutable.
3. Field view (field work) : Srinivas believes that the knowledge about the different
regions of Indian society can be attained through field work. This he calls field view.
Consequently, he prefers empirical study to understand our society. Srinivas took
the path of small regional studies rather than the construction of grand theories. In
 this context, field work plays an important role to understand the nativity of the
rural Indian society.
4. In opinion of Srinivas, view from the field particularly in the context of the caste
situation, brings out lived reality of the people, the articulation of what is contained
in scriptural texts in real life situations. Here, social mobility assumes importance.

Srinivas also realized the need for a mathematical and statistical orientation in sociology.
His self-analysis underlines this point There are cogent reasons of both an ideological and
a practical nature which explain why the secondary level of analysis described above is not
usually pursued by scholars. The practical considerations are easy to detect Perhaps, more
in the past than at present, the fear of mathematics derive many brilliant and diligent
scholars to the ‘humanistic’ disciplines like sociology.

WRITINGS OF SRINIVAS:
Srinivas has written on many aspects of Indian society and culture. He is best known for
his work on religion, village community, caste and social change He was influenced by
Radcliffe-Brown’s notion of structure, who was his teacher at Oxford He studied Indian
society as a ‘totality’, a study which would integrate “the various groups in its
interrelationship, whether tribes, peasants or various cults and sects” (Patel). His writings
are based on intensive field work in South India in general and Coorgs and Rampura in
particular (Shah).

1. Social Change : Brahminization, sans-kritisation, westernization and secularization

2. Religion and Society
3. Study of Village
4. Views on Caste
5. Dominant Caste

Social Change:
‘Social change’ as a theme continues to be a significant concern of Indian sociologists.This
hold true not only for the pre-independence phase but also for post-independence period
Srinivas attempted to construct a macro-level analysis using a large number of micro-level
findings on the processes of ‘sanskritisation, ‘westernization’ and ‘secularization’.
Interestingly enough,Srinivas returned to his micro-empirical setting a village- after nearly
a quarter of century and in a diachronic frame highlighted the nature of social change in
that village over period of time.

Religion and Society

1. Srinivas’s work ‘Religion and Society among the Coorgs of South India’ led him to
formulate the concept of Brahminization to represent the process of the imitation of
life-ways and ritual practices of Brahmins by the lower-caste Hindus.The concept
was used as an explanatory device to interpret changes observed in the ritual
practices and life-ways of the lower castes through intensive and careful field study.
The notion of Brahminization, however, had implicit possibilities of further
abstraction into a higher level concept, Sanskritisation, which Srinivas introduced
because his own field data and those of many others indicated limitations of using
only Brahminic model as frame of reference. Later, sanskritisation, as a concept,
thus, replaced Brahminization at a more abstract level.
 2. Srinivas achieved this through enlarging the meaning of sanskritisation and by
distinguishing it from another concept, westernization, using both terms in a
systematic manner to explain the processes of social change in India. This
conceptual scheme, though referring mainly to the processes of cultural imitation,
has a built-in structural notion, that of hierarchy and inequality of privilege and
power, since the imitation is always by the castes or categories placed lower in
social and economic status. We find a systematic placed lower in social and
economic status.
3. We find a systematic formulation of the two concepts in Srinivas’s ‘Social Change in
Modern India’, wherein he defines ‘sanskritisation’ as the process by which a ‘low’
caste or tribe or other groups takes over the custom, ritual beliefs ideology and style
of life of a high and in particular, a ‘twice-born (dwija), caste. The sanskritisation of
a group has usually the effect of improving its position in the local caste
hierarchy.The major emphasis in study of social change through concepts of
sanskritisation and westernization and of the levels of traditions is on the changes
in cultural styles, customs and ritual practices.

Sanskritisation:

1. The term Sanskritisation was introduced into Indian Sociology by Prof. M.N.
Srinivas.The term refers to a process whereby people of lower castes collectively try
to adopt upper caste practices and beliefs, as a preliminary step to acquire higher
status. Thus, this indicates a process of cultural mobility that took place in the
traditional social system of India.
2. Meaning of Sanskritisation : Sanskritisation is not a new phenomenon. It has been
a major process of cultural changein Indian history, and it has occurred in every
part of the Indian sub-continent It denotes the process in which the lower castes try
to imitate the life-styles of upper castes in their attempt to raise their social status.
3. Definition of Sanskritisation: The definition of Sanskritisation was given by
M.N.Srinivas in his “Social Change in Modern India” published in 1971. It means “a
process by which a low caste or a tribe or other group changes its customs, rituals,
ideology, and a way of life in the direction of a high and frequently, twice born
caste.”

An analysis of the process of Sanskritisation :

1. Sanskritisation denotes the process of upward mobility. In this process, a caste is

trying to increase its position in the caste hierarchy not at once, but over a period of
time. It would take some times, a period of one or two generations.’
2. Mobility that is involved in the process of Sanskritisation results only in “positional
changes” for particular castes or sections of castes, and need not necessarily lead to
a”structural change”. It means, while individual castes move up or down, the
structure as such remains the same.
3. In process of sanskritisation, caste mobility is group mobility. To ensure that the
mobile caste member does not find difficult to obtain marriage partner, to
neutralize threat from other castes, caste mobility must be a group mobility.
4. The castes which enjoyed higher economic and political power but rated relatively
low in ritual ranking went after Sanskritisation for they felt that their claim to a
higher position was not fully effective.
5. Economic betterment is not a necessary pre-condition to Sanskritisation, nor
economic development must necessarily lead to Sanskritisation. However,
 sometimes a group (caste/tribe) may start by acquiring political power and this
may lead to economic development and Sanskritisation.
6. Therefore, Sanskritisation is not possible without secular mobility.
7. Sanskritisation is not necessarily confined to the castes within the Hindu
community, it is found in tribal communities also. The Bhils of Western India, the
Gonds and Oraons of Middle India and the Pahadiyas of Himalayan region have
come under the influence of Sanskritisation. These tribal communities are now
claiming themselves to be Hindus.
8. Therefore, It speaks about Tribe-Caste Continuous. It is thus not necessity speaking
of Brahmanical model of mobility rather it speaks about kshatriya model vaishya
model shudra model of mobility.
9. The process of Sanskritisation serves as a “reference group”. It is through this
process caste group tries to orient its beliefs, practices, values, attitudes and “life
styles”in terms of another superior or dominant group, so that it can also get some
recognition.
10. Sanskritisation does not take place in the same manner in all the places.

Impact of Sanskritisation as Modernizing Force:

1. Modern education,Western literature and philosophy of people widened and as a

result the mental horizons and visionary of people changed They welcomed
rationality and other good features of and made good use of liberal and
humanitarian ideas and thoughts.
2. Vedas has been conceived through intellectual contemplation and empirical
observation and used Upnishads (speculative interpretation of Vedas or Mythology)
for the creation of human imagination.
3. Reformists and their organizations had purely an economic and social thrust They
aimed at establishing a social order based on Vedic teachings and practices. They
criticized the mumbo-jumbo of rituals and superstitions created by some selfish
people to entangle the ignorant and poor masses. They laid emphasis on
interpreting Vedas in a rational and scientific way.
4. It reduced or removed the gap between the ritual and secular rankings. It also
helped upliftment of weaker persons.The lower caste group which successfully got
into the seat of secular power also tried to avail of the services of Brahmins
especially at the time of observing rituals, worshipping and offering things to God.

Does sanskrtisation exists among tribals?

1. The question that arises is whether Hinduisation is the same as sanskritisation. The
two are, of course, interrelated but it may be more appropriate to describe the
process involved in the context of tribes as Hinduisation rather than sanskritisation.
This is so because climbing up the hierarchy is not the overriding concern among
the tribes. Ofcourse it is not possible to conceive of Hindu faith and practices outside
that of caste organization. Hinduisation thus invariably entails some caste status.
But the caste status that is accorded to tribe is said to be one of ‘laws caste Status’. If
this is the case, then where is the process of social mobility in the case of tribes?
What is it that tribes gain through this process? Neither have they mate claim for
higher status. In opinion of Dalit sociologist Hardiman, it is outsiders who impose
such status on tribes. In fact, even after Hinduisation tribes by and large remain
outside the hierarchical structure of Hindu society.
 2. The problem with concept of Sanskritisation in the case of tribes does not end there.
In fact, there is also problem of the reference group. It is for from clear from the
literature as to which of the caste groups, tribes (barring those belonging to royal or
chiefly lineage) emulated in their respective region. The royal/Chiefly lineage
emulated rajputs and has entered into matrimonial alliance with them. Thus
whereas the upper strata of the tribal society got integrated into Hindu society The
subjects continued to live outside Hindu society though there may have been a
process of Hinduisation among them. Climbing up the ladder of hierarchy had been
not their concern. Given this, it would perhaps be more not their concern. Given this,
it would perhaps be more appropriate to speak of Hinduisation than of
sanskritization in the context of tribes in India. Further, if at all tribes consider some
castes superior. It is not because of their caste status but because they happen to be
Jajirdan, thinkadars, lambadars etc.
3. The question that may be asked them is why tribes, Hinduised themselves even
though they attain no higher status? Do they want to be absorbed into the longer
society? Well, this may have been the case in the past but it is no longer the case
today. Today, the process of acculturation into ideas, values and practices of the
dominant community is more of being like the dominant community than are of
being part of that society of assuming some caste status.

Criticisms of Sanskritisation :

1. According to J.F Stall, Sanskritisation as used by Srinivas and other anthropologists

isa complex concept or a class of concepts.The term itself seems to be misleading,
since its relationship to the term Sanskrit is extremely complicated
2. Yogendra Singh opines that sanskritisation fails to account for many aspects of
cultural change in past and contemporary India as it neglects the non-sanskritic
traditions.
3. As it neglects non-sanskritic traditions like Bhakti movement, Buddhism and
Islamisation. So it is more of culturological model than sociological
4. Sanskritic influence has not been universal to all parts of country. In most of
northern lndia, especially in Punjab, it was the Islamic tradition which provided a
basis for cultural imitation.
5. When we try to interpret certain changes that have taken place in the field of social
mobility in the light of Sanskritisation, we face certain paradoxes. According to
Dr.Srinivas, political and economic forces are normally favourable for
Sanskritisation. But the “policy of reservation” a poltico constitutional attempt to
elevate the status of lower caste, and class people, presents here a different picture.
Theoretically, the policy of reservation must be supportive of Sanskritisation. But
paradoxically it goes against it.

Westernisation:

1. The process of Westernization of caste-system in India began with the frantic efforts
of missionaries to convert as many Indians as possible into Christianity and coming
of East India Company in India first to trade and later on to increase its political
power in India. East India Company successfully established ‘British Imperial Rule’
in India by 1858.
2. British rule produced radical and lasting changes in the Indian society and culture.
The British brought with them new technology, institutions, knowledge, beliefs, and
values. These have become the main source of social mobility for individuals as well
 as groups. It is in this context, M.N.Srinivas, introduced the term “Westernisation”
mainly to explain the changes that have taken place in the Indian society and culture
due to Western contact through the British rule.
3. Definition of Westernisation : According to M.N.Srinivas,”Westernisation” refers
to “the changes brought about in the Indian society and culture as a result of over
150 years of British rule and the term subsumes changes occurring at different
levels -technology, institutions, ideology and values.”
4. Meaning of Westernisation: In comparison with Sanskritisation, Westernisation is
a simplier concept It explains the impact of Western contact (particularly of British
rule) on the Indian society and culture. M.N. Srinivas used the term
“Westernisation” to describe the changes that a non-western country had
undergone as a result of prolonged contact with the western one. It imples,
according to Srinivas, “certain value preferences”, which in turn subsumes several
values, such as “humanitarianism” It implies an active concern for the welfare of all
human beings irrespective of caste, economic position, religion, age and sex.
Westernisation not only includes the introduction of new institutions, but also
fundamental changes in old institutions. For example, India had schools long before
the arrival of the British, but they were different from the British introduced
schools. Other institutions such as army, civil service and law courts were also
similarly affected However, the increase in Westernisation does not retard the
process of Sanskritisation. Both go on simultaneously, and to some extent increase
in Westernisation accelerates the process of Sanskritisation. For example, the postal
facilities, railways, buses and newspaper media which are the fruits of Western
impact on India render more organised religious pilgrimages, meetings, caste
solidarities, etc., possible compared to the past.
5. M.N. Srinivas classifies people is there categories based on their value orientation
and manifest behaviour. He says that a category of people who are both internally as
well as externally sanskritised that means whose value structure as well as
behaviour is sanskritised Another category of people where people are internally
sankritised i.e. sanskritised value base white externally westernized i.e.they imitate
west in their fashion and habbits. Third category where both internal as well as
external sanskritisation can be found So this categorization of Srinivas helps to
understand the balancing act of people between tradition and modern identities.
Hence it explain change with continuity.

Impact of Westernisation

1. Opened up the doors of the knowledge

2. Modern education opened up the doors of the knowledge flourished in Europe after
Renaissance movement of Middle Ages. It had widened the mental horizons of
Indian intelligentsia.
3. Education for all – During second half of the nineteenth century, British
government in India opened the doors of education to all the sections of Indian
society, irrespective of caste or creed Still very few amongst the general public could
avail the advantages of formal modern education. Education remained confined
within a small section of society.
4. Highlighted evil practices-Modern education had highlighted the evil practices
and weaknesses developed into the system, like rigidity and harshness of many
social customs and practices prevalent at that time for the weaker sections of the
society i.e. untouchability and inhuman treatment to women,Sati, Polygamy, child
marriage etc. prevalent at that time.
 5. Attracted attention of social reformers- Modern education had attracted the
attention of intellectuals and social reformers towards real issues evils caused by
ignorance, irrationality of mumbo-jumbo of rituals and superstitions created by
some selfish people to entangle the ignorant and poor masses.They suggested
remedies for social, political and economic ills of the country. They took upon
themselves the responsibility to build a modern, open, plural culturally rich,
prosperous and powerful India out of a fragmented, poverty stricken, superstitious,
weak, indifferent, backward and inward looking society. As a result of such efforts, it
led to abolition of Sati and slavery. Female infanticide practice lowered to a great
extent
6. Realization of the worth of liberty and freedom- It equipped national leaders
with intellectuals tools with which they fought the oppressive British Raj. Indians
realized the worth of liberty and freedom. They got exposure to the philosophies of
thinkers like Locke, Mill Roussseau, Voltaire, Spencer and Burke etc.They
understood the reasons and impact of English, French, American revolutions.

Criticisms of Westernisation :
The concepts of Sanskritisation and Westernisation primarily analyse social change
in “cultural” and not in “structural” terms. This denoted that these terms have limited
range of application and use.

1. Srinivasas model explains the process of social change only in India which is based
on the caste system. It is not useful for other societies. Though Srinivas claimed that
the concept of Westernisation is “ethically neutral” it is not really so. The Western
model which Srinivas has eulogised has its own contradiction. Mention can be made
of the facts of Western life such as racial prejudice, colour segregation and
exploitive nature of the Western economy, etc.These facts contradict humanitarian
ideals or rational outlook on life.
2. It is also commented that the Western model which Srinivas has eulogised has its
own contradiction. The western model sometimes conveys values that are contrary
to the ones referred by Srinivas.
3. Daniel Learner has raised some objections to the use of Westernisation as
conceived by Srinivas :
 It is too local label and the model which is imitated may not be western country; but
Russia.
 One of the result of prolonged contact with the west is the rise of the elite class
whose attitude towards the West is ambivalent is not invariably true. In this context,
Lerner refers to the appeal of Communism in non-western countries.
 Westernisation in one area or level of behaviour does not result inWesternisation in
another related area or level
 While there is certain common elements in Westernisation, yet each represent a
particular variant of a common culture and significant difference exists between one
country and another.

Difference between Sanskritisation and Westernisation:

1. Sanskritisation process promoted the sacred outlook; while Westernisation process

promoted secular
outlook.
 2. Sanskritisation is a process of upward mobility by a process of imitation while
Westernisation is a process of upward mobility by a process of development
3. Sanskritisation implies mobility within the framework of caste while
Westernisation implies mobility
outside the framework of caste.
4. While Sanskritisation puts a taboo on meat-eating and consumption of alcohol
Westernisation promoted meat-eatingand consumption of alcohol Sanskrtisation
implies to imitation of higher caste particularly twice-born. While westernization
implies imitation of dominant community.Today process of westernization is more
prevalent than sankrtisation due to strong exogenous forces of globalization.

Study of Village :
Besides religion and caste, the third traditions component of Srinivas’ Study is village.
Srinivas got the seed idea of studying India’s villages from his mentor Radcliffe-Brown in.
He conducted the study of Rampur – a Mysore village – which gave him the concept of
‘dominant cast’. The study has been contained in the Remembered Village; it is here only
that Srinivas takes some time to discuss social and economic changes, which have taken
place in Rampura. He informs that the technological change occupied a prominent place in
the life of the people of Rampura soon after independence. Technological change, of
course, went hand in hand with economic, political and cultural changes.

1. The main aim of Srinivas has been to understand Indian society. And’ for him, Indian
society is essentially a caste society.
2. He has studied religion, family, caste and village in India. Srinivas search for the
identity of traditions makes him infer that the Indian traditions are found in caste,
village and religion.
3. Ideologically, he believed in status quo: let the Dalits survive and let the high castes
enjoy their hegemony over subaltern. For him, it appears that Indian social
structure is on par with the advocates of Hindutva, say, the cultural nationalism.
Srinivas though talks about economic and technological development, all through
his works he pleads for change in caste, religion and family.
4. Even in the study of these areas he sidetracks lower segments of society. They are
like ‘untouchables’ for him.
5. Srinivas has extensively talked about the social evils of the caste society; he pleads
for change in caste system and discusses westernization and modernization as
viable paradigms of changes. But his perspective of change is Brahminical Hinduism
or traditionalism.

For him, Indian traditions are those, which are manifested in caste and village. His
traditions are Hinduised traditions, and in no sense secular ones. Srinivas, in a straight
forward way, rejects secularism and stands in favour of Hindu traditions. In his critique of
Indian secularism, which appeared in a short article in the Times of India in 1993, he finds
secularism wanting because he believes that India needs a new philosophy to solve the
cultural and spiritual crises facing the country and that philosophy cannot be secular
humanism. It has to be firmly rooted in God as creator and protector. Srinivas’ to Hindutva
ideology of cultural nationalism. At this stage of discussion, Doshi comments regarding
India’s traditions, it can be said that any tradition emanating from caste system cannot be
nation’s tradition as the constitution has rejected caste.

Srinivas concentrated on the study of some vital aspects of Hindu society and culture and
his study did it explore the dimensions of interaction and interface between the Hindu and
non-Hindu segments. The area that he studied did not have a large non-Hindu presence.
He hoped that other sociologists would take up the study of the non-Hindu segment of
Indian society and culture without which an Indian sociology, Indian in the sense of being
comprehensive and authentic and hence truly representative of the plurality and
complexity of India, would not emerge. In this context, Joshi viewed that Srinivas’ self
definition and self-perception was never that of a Hindu sociologist but that of an Indian
sociologist studying Hindu religion and its social institutions in a specific area through
intensive field work at the ground level.

Views on Caste : (Discussed in Next Unit – Caste System)

Assessment of Srinivas :
The life mission of Srinivas has been to understand Indian society. But he is
criticized on following lines :

1. He though talks about economic and technological developments but in the study of
these areas sidetracks lower segments of society.
2. In his endeavour for promoting sanskritisation he has marginalized and alienated
religious minorities.
3. For him, Indian traditions are those, which are manifested in caste and village. His
traditions are Hinduised traditions and in no sense secular ones.
4. The construction of sanskritisation and dominant caste put him closer to Hindutva
ideology of cultural nationalism. One can say that his understanding was more
elitist or presents only upper caste view.

The indigenous concepts of social change prevailing among sociologists in the 1950s and
in the 1960s
were formulated by M.N.Srinivas under the labels ‘sanskritisation’ and ‘westernization’. He
regarded these two processes as “limited processes in modern India and it is not possible
to understand one without reference to the other”.Srinivas had evolved the concept of
sanskritisation while preparing his doctoral dissertation under the guidance of Radcliffe-
Brown and Evens Pritchard at Oxford He finally formulated the concepts as denoting the
process by which a ‘low caste people, tribal or other group, changes its customs, rituals,
ideology, and way of life in the direction of a high and frequently ‘twice-born caste’.

Srinivas posited the concept of westernization as follows: “The British conquest of India
set free a number
of forces – political, economic, social and technological … (which) affected the country’s
social and cultural
life profoundly and at every point, and that the withdrawal of the British from India not
only did not mean the cession of these forces but, meant on the contrary, their
intensification”.

1. According to Mukherjee now, as a summary of certain characteristics spontaneously

observable in society, these concepts cannot claim any originality.
2. What Srinivas characterized as sanskritisation in the idiom of sociology currently
fashionable, had been described by the proto-sociologists Lyall and Risley as
‘Aryanization’ and ‘Brahminization’. Possibly, sanskritisation is a more precise
expression of the process under reference, as is claimed by Srinivas who does not
deny the antecedents to his concept.
 3. The pioneers also were not unaware of the two processes and took particular note
of them in the context of their respective value preferences, theoretical formulations
and research orientation (e.g., Coomaraswamy, and D.P. Mukerji).
4. The two processes have, respectively, two levels of meaning – ‘historic-specific’ and
‘contextual-specific, as Yogendra Singh has remarked regarding sanskritisation.

CONCLUSION
Despite above mentioned criticism, Srinivas stands tall among the first-generation
sociologists of India. His focus on ‘field view’ over the ‘book view’ is a remarkable step in
understanding the reality of Indian society. This reflects sociology of nativity. His field
work among the Coorgs relates his approach as structural-functional and represents an
exposition of the complex interrelationship between ritual and social order in Coorgs
society. It also deals with the crucial notion of purity and pollution as also with the process
of incorporation of non-Hindu communities into the Hindu social order. This refers to the
concept of ‘sanskritisation’ which he used to describe the process of the penetration of
Sanskritic values into the remotest parts of India.

Marxist sociology (A R Desai)

MARXIST PERSPECTIVE:
In 50s-60s American structural-functionalism and British functionalism dominated social
sciences in general and sociological researches in particular. However Desai continued to
write on Indian society and state from the Marxist perspective. He finds that the dominant
sociological approaches in India are basically non-Marxist and the Marxist approach has
been rejected on the pretext of its being dogmatic, value-loaded and deterministic in
nature. The relevant approach according to him is the Marxist approach as it could help to
study of govt’s policies, the class entrenched into state apparatus and India’s political
economy.The Marxist approach helps to understand the social reality through the means
of production, the techno-economic division of labour involved in operating the
instruments of production and social relations of production or what was more precisely
characterized as property relations. Thus the Marxist approach focuses on understanding
the type of property relations which existed on the eve of independence in India. The
Marxist approach gives central importance to property structure in analyzing any society.
It provides historical location or specification of all social phenomena. It recognizes the
dialectics of evolutionary as well as revolutionary changes of the breaks in historical
continuity in the transition from one socio-economic formation to another. In this context
A R Desai tried to understand the Indian society which also reflects in his work.

A.R Desai
A.R Desai was born on April 16, 1915 at Nadiadin Gujarat and died in 1994 at Baroda. He
consistently advocated and applied dialectical-historical model in his sociological studies.
He closely studied the works of Marx and Engels and the writings of Trotsky. He may be
regarded as one of the pioneers in introducing the modern Marxist approach to empirical
investigations involving bibliographical and field research. He rejects any interpretations
of tradition with reference to religion, rituals and festivities. It is essentially a secular
phenomenon. He finds it in family, village and other social institutions. He also does not
find the origin of tradition in western culture. He considers that the emerging
contradictions in the Indian process of social transformation arise mainly from the
growing nexus among the capitalist bourgeoisie, the rural petty-bourgeoisie and a state
apparatus all drawn from similar social roots.

Among Indian sociologists one who has consistently advocate and applied
dialectical-historical model in his sociological studies is A.R.Desai. Desai closely
studied the works of Marx and Engels and the writings of Leon Trotsky by whom he was
very much influenced He may be regarded as one of the pioneers introducing the
modern Marxist approach to empirical investigations involving bibliographical and
field research. Following facts are worth mentioning about Desai :

1. Desai alone among Indian sociologists has consistently applied Marxist methods in
his treatment of Indian social structure and its processes. He is a doctrinaire
Marxist.
2. He rejects any interpretations of tradition with reference to religion, rituals and
festivities; it is essentially
3. a secular phenomenon. Its nature is economic and it originates and develops in
economic. He finds it in family, village and other social institutions. He also does not
find the origin of tradition in western culture.
4. His studies mainly of nationalism and its social configuration, his examination of
community development programmes for economic development in villages, his
diagnosis of the interface between state and society in India or the relationship
between polity and social structure, his treatment of urban slums and their
demographic problems, and finally his study of peasant movements are all based on
a Marxist method of historical-dialectical materialism.
5. He considers that the emerging contradictions in the Indian process of social
transformation arise mainly from the growing nexus among the capitalist
bourgeoisie, the rural petty-bourgeoisie and a state apparatus, industrial working
classes by sheer of its power and of its skilful stratagems. The contradiction,
however, is not resolved It only takes new cumulative forms and re-emerges in the
form of protests and social movements.The social unrest is rooted in the capitalist
path of development followed by India, bequeathed to it as a legacy of the national
movement.

Analysis of Indian Society through Marxist Approach :

Marx pointed out that different sub-formations within a society could not be understood
adequately if seen in the context of the historical level Thus,

1. The Marxist approach endeavors to locate, within a specific society, the forces
which preserve and forces which prompt it to change, i.e., the forces driving to
take a leap into a new or a higher form of social organization, which would
unleash the productive power of mankind to a next higher level.
2. Further, Desai argues that the methodology adopted by social scientists is apt
to understand social reality from the ideology of capitalism. But that is a false
finding. He further argues that changes need to be interpreted from the perspective
of production relation. And it is precisely the method he has applied.
3. The Marxist approach further considers that focusing on the type of property
relations prevailing in the Indian society as crucial-axial element for properly
understanding the nature will be crudely reducing of every phenomenon to
economic factor; it also not denies the autonomy, or prevalence of distinct
institutional and normative features peculiar to a particular society. For
instance, according to Desai, it does not deny the necessity of understanding
 institutions like caste system, religions, linguistic or tribal groups or even specific
cultural traditions which are characteristics of the Indian society.
4. The Marxist approach, in fact, Endeavors to understand the role and the
nature of the transformation of these institutions in the larger context of the
type of society, which is being evolved. This approach understands these
institutions in the matrix of underlying overall property relations and norms
implicit therein, which pervasively influence the entire social economic formation.
5. Desai feels that adoption of the Marxist approach will be helpful in studying
the industrial relations, not merely as management-labour relations, and also
in the context of the state wedded to capitalist path of development, shaping
these relations.
6. The Marxist approach will also assist in understanding why institutions
generating higher knowledge-products, sponsored, financed and basically
shaped by the state, pursuing a path of capitalist development. This
understanding will expose the myth spread about state, as welfare neutral state and
reveal it as basically a capitalist state.
7. The constitution evolved is bourgeois constitution and the leadership is
representing capitalist class and is reshaping the economy and society on
capitalist path. The slogan of socialistic pattern is a hoax to create illusion and
confuse the masses. The real intentions and practices are geared to the development
on capitalist lines.
8. According to Desai, the bourgeoisie is the dominant class in India. The Indian
society is based on the capitalist economy. The dominant culture in our country is
therefore the culture of the dominant capitalist class.
9. Indian capitalism was a by- product of imperialist capitalism. Indian capitalism
was born during the declining phase of world capitalism when, due to the general
crisis of capitalism, even in advanced capitalist countries, the ruling bourgeoisie, not
cognizant of the cause of the crisis, have been increasingly abandoning rationalism
and materialist philosophies and retrograding to religio-mystical world outlook,
10. Desai argues that Indian bourgeoisie built up a fundamentally secular
bourgeois democratic state, which has been imparting modern scientific,
technological and liberal democratic education.
11. This class and its intelligensia have been, in the cultural field are revivalist
and more and more popularizing, supporting and spreading old religious and
idealistic philosophic concepts among the people.
12. The social role played by this culture is reactionary since it gives myopic
picture of the physical universe and the social world, a misexplanation of the
fundamental causes of the economic and social crisis, opiates the
consciousness of the masses and tries to divert the latter from advancing on
the road of specific solution of their problems.

Important contributions of Desai on major themes are :

1. Village structure
2. Social background of Indian nationalism
3. State and society
4. Transformation of Indian society
5. Peasant struggles
Village Structure :

1. It is viewed that Indian village was a self-sufficient unit in pre-British period The
village population was mainly composed of peasants. The peasant families enjoyed
traditional hereditary right to possess, and cultivate his holding from generation to
generation. Therefore, village was based on agriculture carried on with the
primitive plough and bullock-power and handicraft by means of the primitive
equipment.
2. The village council was the de facto owner of the village land which represented the
village community. All exchange of product produced by the village workers, was
limited to the village community. The village did not have any appreciable exchange
relations with the outside world Further, the pre-British Indian society almost
completely subordinated the individual to the caste, family and the village
panchayat. The culture of pre-British India was feudal in nature, which was
predominantly mystical in character. This was due to the fact that the society was
economically on a low level stationary and socially rigid Whatever changes occurred
was quantitative and not qualitative in character.

Transformation of Indian Society :

The transformation of the pre-British India from feudal economy to capitalist economy
was a result of the British conquest of India. The British government adopted the capitalist
path of development in their political and economic policies at three levels, viz., trade,
industry and finance.

1. The introduction of new economic reforms of the British government disrupted the
old economic system. Consequently it destroyed the old land relations and artisans
with the emergence of new land relations and modern industries.
2. In place of village commune appeared modern peasant proprietors or zamindars, as
private owner of land.
3. The class of artisans disappeared with modern industry. New classes like the
capitalist industrial workers, agricultural labourer, tenants, merchants etc., emerged
Thus, the British impact not only led to the transformation of the economic anatomy
of Indian society, but also its social physiognomy.
4. Further, the new land revenue system, commercialization of agriculture,
fragmentation of land etc., also led to the transformation of Indian village.
5. At higher level this resulted in growing polarization of classes in agrarian areas,
poverty in rural areas and exploitations by the owners of land It give rise to new
class structure in agrarian society with categories like zamindars, absentee
landlords, tenants, peasant proprietors, agricultural labourers, money lenders and
merchant class.
6. Similarly, in urban society, there were capitalist industrial working class, petty
traders, professional classes like doctors, layers, engineers etc.

The British government also introduced railways, postal services, centralized uniform law,
English education, modern industry and many more, which brought qualitative change in
Indian society. It is said that although the British government had various exploitative
mechanisms in India, but unintentionally these efforts led to unification of Indian society.
The role of railways and press is significant in this direction. It has brought the scattered
and disintegrated Indians into the mainstream. The implication was social movements,
collective representations, national sentiments, and consciousness among Indian people
and formation of unionism at various levels. Such a social infrastructural set-up gave rise
to nationalism, freedom movement and awakening of Indian nationalism.

Social Background of Indian Nationalism :

Desai applies the Marxist approach to the study of ‘nationalism’ in India during the British
rule. He spells out historical-dialectical materialism and applies it to the study of various
types of movements- rural and urban, caste and class structure, social mobility, education
and other aspects of Indian society.

Desai’s first full-length work The Social Background of Indian Nationalism was a
trendsetter not only for its Marxist academic orientation, but also for the way in which it
cross-fertilized sociology with history. Quite like other Marxists, he employer production
relations for the explanation of traditional social background of Indian nationalism in his
classical work.

1. The book is an excellent effort to trace the emergence of Indian nationalism from
dialectical perspective.
2. According to Desai, India’s nationalism is the result of the material conditions
created by the British colonialism. The Britishers developed new economic relations
by introducing industrialization and modernization. This economic relationship is
predominantly a stabilizing factor in the continuity of traditional institutions in
India, which would undergo changes as these relations would change.
3. Desai thinks that when traditions are linked with economic relations, the change in
the latter would eventually change the traditions. It is in this context that he thinks
that, caste will disintegrate with the creations of new social and material conditions,
such as industries, economic growth, education etc.
4. Desai’s definition of tradition is a watershed. He does not trace it from caste,
religion or ritual The dialectical history of India that he presents very clearly shows
that traditions have their roots in Indian economy and production relation. Despite
merits of dialectical approach applied by Desai in the definition of
tradition, Yogendra Singh argues that the merits are not without weaknesses.
What is wrong with Desai is that he was very profound when he applies principles
of Marxism in analyzing Indian situation but fails at the level of empirical support. In
other words, his theoretical framework can be challenged by the strength of
substantial data.
5. In his works, Desai developed the Marxian framework to outline the growth of
capitalism in India. He provided an analysis of the emergence of the various social
forces, which radically altered the economy and society in India within the context
of colonialism.The state which emerged in India after independence, he postulated
was a capitalist state. To him, the administrative level apparatus of the state
performed the twin functions of protecting the propertied classes and suppressing
the struggle of the exploited classes.
6. In ‘India s path of Development’ he took on the traditional communist parties and
the Marxian scholars who spoke of the alliance with the progressive bourgeoisie, of
semi-feudalism, of foreign imperialist control over Indian economy, and who
postulated a ‘two-stages theory of revolution’ or accepted a ‘peaceful parliamentary
road to socialism’ in India. Desai’s works include a number of edited volumes on
rural sociology, urbanization, labour movements, peasant’s struggle, modernization,
religion and democratic rights. They are a rich source of reference material for
students, researchers and activists.
Peasant Struggles :
In his two volumes entitled Peasant Struggles in India and Agrarian Struggles in
India after Independence? Desai had complied excellent material on peasant struggles in
India during colonial rule and after independence. The difference in the character of
struggles then and now is highlighted Agrarian struggles, at present, Desai suggests, are
waged by the newly-emerged propertied classes as well as the agrarian poor, especially
the agrarian proletariat, whereas the former fight for the greater share in the fruits of
development The poor comprising pauperized peasants and labourers belonging to low
castes and tribal communities struggle for survival and for a better life in themselves.
Thus, Desai maintained progress could be achieved only by radically transforming the
exploitative capitalist system of India. The theme of the state was explored in several of his
studies.

State and Society :

1. In State and Society in India, Desai provided a critique of the theories of

modernization accepted by a large number of academic establishments. He
clearly stated that in reality the concept assumed “modernization on capitalist
path a desirable value premise”.It, however, served as a valuable ideological
vehicle to the ruling class pursuing the capitalist path. Desai remarked on the
absence of a comprehensive analysis of the class character, class role and the
economic, repressive, ideological functions of the post-independence Indian state by
Marxists scholars. In many of his later works he pursued the theme of the repressive
role of the state and the growing resistance to it In Violation of Democratic Rights in
India, he highlights the violation of the democratic rights of minorities, women,
slum dwellers in urban India, press and other media by the state (Munshi Sand
Saldanha).
2. In his studies of nationalism, analysis of rural social structure, the nature of
economic and social politics of change in India and the structure of state and society,
he has consistently tried to expose the contradictions and anomalies in policies and
process of change resulting from the capitalist-bourgeoisie interlocking of interest
in the Indian society. According to Desai, the polarization of class interest, especially
of the bourgeoisie, is the foundation of modern society in India. It has thus inherent
in it the class contradictions and the logic of its dialectics. This has been thoroughly
exposed by Desai in his several writings.

Relevance of Marxist Approach:

1. In the fifties and early sixties; American structural-functionalism and British

functionalism dominated social sciences; in general and sociological researches, in
particular. However, Desai undeterred by these imperialistic influences continued
to write on Indian society and state from the Marxist perspective.
2. He finds that the dominant sociological approaches in India are basically non-
Marxist, and the Marxist approach has been rejected on the pretext of its being
dogmatic, value-loaded and deterministic in nature.
3. According to Desai, the Marxist approach is the relevant approach. It could
help to study of government polices; the classes entrenched into state
apparatus and India’s political economy. Desai writes,’I wish the social science
practitioners in India break-through the atmosphere of allergy towards this
profound and influential approach and create climate to study the growing body of
 literature articulating various aspects of Indian society, the class character of the
slate and the path of development”
4. According to Desai, the Marxist approach helps one to raise relevant questions,
conduct researches in the right direction, formulate adequate hypotheses, evolve
proper concepts, adopt and combine appropriate research techniques and locate the
central tendencies of transformation with its major implications.
5. According to Desai the Marxist approach helps to understand the social reality
through the means of production, the techno-economic division of labour
involved in operating the instruments of production, and social relations of
production or what are more precisely characterized as property
relations. Thus, the Marxist approach focuses on understanding the type of
property relations which existed on the eve of independence in India. These are
being elaborated by the state as the active agent of transformation of post-
independent India. Hence, the Marxist approach will help the Indian scholars to
designate the type of society and its class character, the role of the state and the
specificity of the path of development with all the implications.
6. Property relations are crucial because they shape the purpose, nature,
control, direction and objectives underlying the production. Further, property
relations determine the norms about who shall get how much and on what grounds.
For understanding the post-independence Indian society, the Marxist approach will
focus on the specific type of property relations, which existed on the eve of
independence and which are being elaborated by the state as the active agent of
transformation.

In brief, the Marxist approach gives central importance to property structure in

analyzing any society. It provides “historical location or specification of all social
phenomena Moreover, “this approach recognizes the dialectics of evolutionary as
well as revolutionary changes of the breaks in historical continuity in the transition
from one socio-economic formation to another” In this context, Desai tried to
understand the Indian society which also reflects in his works. Desai not only did give
notice to the mainstream that Marx has a place in sociology, but also, he provided a forum
for radical-minded scholars to broaden their horizon of research.

However, this approach has been criticized on many counts. According to Yogendra
Singh, the important limitation of the dialectical approach for studies of social change in
India is the lack of substantial empirical data in support of his major assertion, which are
often historiography and can easily be challenged In theoretical terms, however, this
approach can be more visible for analysis of the processes of change and conflict in India
provided it is founded upon a sound tradition of scientific research. Despite these
limitations, some studies conducted on this model offer useful hypotheses, which can be
further tested in course of the studies on social change.

CONCLUSION
The works of A. R. Desai, shows that how Marxist approach can be applied in
understanding Indian social reality. The Social Background of Indian Nationalism reflects
on the economic interpretation of Indian society. Desai applies historical materialism for
understanding the transformation of Indian society. He explains that how the national
consciousness emerged through qualitative changes in Indian society. It must be observed
by the concluding words that in all his writings Desai has examined the usefulness of
Marxian framework to understand India’s reality.
 Impact of colonial rule on Indian society
Social Background of Indian Nationalism

1. The establishment of British rule in the late 18th century prompted British officials,
missionaries and scholars to acquire knowledge of the classical languages of India,
of the structure of Indian society and of values and manners of her people.
2. The economic base was primarily agricultural the tools and implements did not
register any remarkable change through time, and arts and crafts mostly connected
with poorly developed production grew. Socially the framework consisted of
comparatively self-sufficient village communities in groups of contiguous villages.
3. Caste was the typical Indian institution to accommodate various socio-economic
strata and nascent classes, binding them together in groups and ensuring such
constituents an occupational protection as well.
4. The British rule introduced the railways, the press, and the western system of
education, clubs and associations all of which shook the prevalent socio-economic
order. But the processes of exploitation unleashed by them destroyed the
possibilities of development of industries and a modern economic system in India.
5. The British rule rather systematically destroyed the native industries of India for
the benefit of the industries in Britain and their market in India. Even though it
sought to tie down the people it ruled to colonial backwardness, it released new
historical forces within the Indian fold by throwing the traditional economic system
and sociocultural order out of gear.
6. It gave birth to the desire of material advancement and better amenities and living
conditions of individuals. Also it gave birth to a spirit of inquiry in the minds of
Indian intellectuals who came in contact with western education. Both the social
reformists and the conservatives took a fresh and critical look at their own society
and culture as a reaction to western interpretation of the same.

Nationalism:

1. Nationalism is a sense of identity with the nation. Liah Greenfekl has defined
nationalism as “an image of a social order; which involves the people as a
sovereign and a community of equals “ The original use of the term nationalism
refers to elite groups, but in modern usage it refers to a very large group, sometimes
as large as empire. The relationship of members of a nation is, theoretically, an
equal relationship between citizens. It develops differently in different national
communities under different historical circumstances.
2. Like all other social phenomena, nationalism is a historical category. It emerged in
the social world at a certain stage of evolution, the life of the community when
certain socio-historical conditions, both subjective and objective, matured E.H.Carr
has remarked, “Nations” in the modern sense of world did not emerge until the
close of the Middle ages.
3. Before national communities, national societies, national states, and national
cultures came into existence, communities in various parts of the world generally
lived through tribal slave and feudal phases of social existence. At a certain stage of
social economic and cultural development, nations came into being. They were
generally distinguished from non-national communities of previous periods of
social existence by certain specific characteristics such as, an organic welding of the
members of the nation,
  Living in a distinct territory within a single economy, conscious of common
economic existence
 Generally one common language is used by them,
 A common culture evolved by it
4. Though an ideal nation possessing all these traits in a state of fullest development
remained an abstraction. This is because the elements of the past always survived in
a varying degree, in economy social structure, psychological habits and culture of
any nation. Still from the seventeenth century onward national communities, in
different stages of national consolidation, have appeared.

INDIAN NATIONALISM:

1. Indian nationalism is a modern phenomenon. It came into being during the

British period This came as a result of the action and interaction of numerous
subjective and objective forces and factors which developed within the Indian
society; under the conditions of British rule and the impact of world forces. The
process of the growth of Indian nationalism has been very complex and many-sided.
This is due to a number of reasons.
2. The pre-British Indian society had a social structure quite unique and perhaps
without a parallel in history. Hinduism itself was not a homogenous religion but a
conglomeration of religious cults which divided Hindu people into a number of
sects. These extreme social and religious divisions of the Hindus in particular and
the Indians, in general, presented a peculiar background to the growth of
nationalism in India.
3. Nationalism in other countries did not rise amidst such peculiarly powerful
traditions and institutions. The self – preservative will of the past social
economic and cultural structure was stronger in India than perhaps in any
country in the world.
4. Another very striking thing about Indian nationalism is that it emerged under
conditions of political subjugation of the Indian people by the British. The
advanced British nation for its own purpose radically changed the economic
structure of Indian society.
5. They established centralized state, and introduced modern education,
modern means of communication and other institutions. This resulted in
growth of new social classes and the unleashing of new social forces, unique in
themselves. These social forces by there very nature came into conflict with British
Imperialism and became the basis of and provided motive power for the rise and
development of Indian nationalism.
6. There are several distinctive conceptual formulations of Indian nationalism both by
Indian and foreign scholars. A dominant view is that of historians and sociologists
who see the rise of nationalism in the context of British colonialism and the
distortions it created in social structure and ideology of our society.
7. These distortions refer to class character of nationalist leadership and its social
cultural and economic policies. It is said these colonial distortions contributed to the
rise of communalism, partition of the country and persistence of communal politics
even after independence.
8. The colonial contact though subversive generated social and economic forces that
gave rise to nationalism and national movement in our society. In this approach the
study of relationship between social structure and cultural ideology forms a
relatively weaker link.
 9. It focuses on macro-historical processes, their intricate movements and patterns in
the society. Some historians and social scientists show sensitively to the problem of
linkages. They find macro-analysis of nationalism and national movement in India
to be dominated by elitism either of liberal or Marxist variety.
10. Such historiography of Indian nationalism suffers according to them by colonialist-
elitism or bourgeois nationalist elitism an ideological product of the British rule in
India. They suggest an alternative model for understanding national movement and
nationalism which derives its inspiration from structuralist theory.
11. The national movement and the ideology of nationalism according to this view
suffered in India from structural cleavages between the mass mobilization on
horizontal lines and its vertical mobilization by elite nationalist leadership.
12. The mass movement was located in principles of kinship, caste, class and territory;
it was spontaneous in making and allied at social resistance against exploitation. Its
mobilization was not based on formal ideological or legalistic strategy and it could
change course and operation in midstream.
13. The national movement led by elite leadership made use of such subaltern
mobilization selectively. The subaltern could not forge national movement all by
itself. Yet the elite leadership did not help forge these movements into a united front
for social mobilization due to its own class ideology.
14. Nationalism is a process a product of historical conjuncture of social forces
through which the linkages are not only established or expanded but also
qualitatively strengthened. Nationalism is therefore not a finished product nor a
formal structure or normative model but an organic historical process through
which civilized societies strengthen themselves by qualitative differentiation from
within and their superior integration organically within a territorial boundary.

FACTORS WHICH PREPARED BACKGROUND OF INDIAN NATIONALISM:

The British government Christian mission and English education were three main sources
of colonial impact on Indian society. The British government replaced the indigenous
systems of administration and governance. The mission made efforts to convert Indian to
Christianity. British educationists tried to spread education to bring about a change in the
outlook of the indigenous population.The British community in India also had an influence
on the people in different parts of the country. The port, towns and coastal areas were
more affected at least in the beginning of the British Raj. The emergence of a national
consciousness, the realization of the value of organization and of the importance of
agitation led to the formation of the Indian National Congress in 1885. Formation of
Congress was a strong foundation of Indian nationalism.

1. K.M. Pannikkar notes that “the most notable achievement of British rule was
the unification of India”.This was done unconsciously by the British in the interest
of the Indian people. They were interested in spreading and consolidating their rule
throughout the country.The same argument can be made about the introduction of
western education, means of transport, communication, technology and judiciary.
2. Y. Singh observes that “the contact of the Indian (Hindu) tradition with the
West was of a different and radical sociological significance. Historically, it
was a contact between a pre-modern and a modernizing cultural system”. The
western tradition had “the scientific and technological world-view based on
rationalism, equality and freedom”. Consequently, the Indian tradition, which
already had a sort of ‘breakdown’, became further open, liberal, equalitarian and
humanistic.The western tradition posed a serious challenge to the Indian tradition.
 Hierarchy, the principle of social ranking based on birth in a particular caste group,
and holism, the ‘organic’ interdependence between different caste groups, based on
norms relating to performances of the assigned functions and duties by various
groups, were considerably affected by the western tradition.
3. M.N. Srinivas defines westernization in terms of the change in Indian society
due to the impact of British rule in India. The areas of change include
technology, dress, food and changes in the habits and lifestyles of people.
Westernization takes place at three levels: Primary, secondary, and tertiary.
4. At the primary level were a minority of people who first came into contact with
western culture and were its first beneficiaries.
5. The secondary level of westernization refers to those sections of Indian society who
came into direct contact with the primary beneficiaries.
6. At the tertiary level are those who came to know indirectly about the advices
introduced by the British.

However, the spread of westernization has been uneven and unequal among
different sections of Indian society. Though Srinivas has mentioned
humanitarianism and egalitarianism as its positive features, there are others who
consider westernization as a process of cultural and cognitive colonialism and as a
model of an “impersonal non-cultural and non-sovereign state”.

Westernization has contributed to the re-emergence of a pan-Indian culture on new

grounds. Some areas of western impact include education, law, science, technology, new
forms of politicization, urbanization, industrialization, the press, means of transport and
communication.

Y. Singh calls this the process of ‘cultural modernization, The western impact has
brought about “a new great tradition of modernization”. Certainly, this poses the
problem of conflict between the indigenous tradition and the western tradition on Indian
soil. A synthesis between the two has occurred particularly in regard to the elite sections
of Indian society. Today, globalization has far more impact on indian society. In fact India
is in the process of becoming a global market/centre of economic and professional
activities.

The British rule created a new consciousness and structure of values. As observed by Y.
Singh westernization has created the following: the growth of an universalistic legal
superstructure, expansion of education, urbanization and industrialization,
increased network of communication and growth of nationalism and politicization
of the society. These elements contributed to modernization throughout the
country. The judiciary, law courts, legislations for prohibiting child marriage,
infanticide and sati, etc., law commissions, land rights, trade, commerce, industries,
labour, etc., were enacted.

SOCIAL BACKGROUND OF INDIAN NATIONAL MOVEMENT

Indian Nationalism and its Chief Phases

1. Indian nationalism has grown and developed in a complex and peculiar social
background.
2. It has passed through various phases of development. As it advanced from one
phase to another its social basis broadened its objective became more clearly
defined and bold Its forms of expression became more varied.
 3. As a result of the impact of forces of Indian and world development, increasing
strata of the Indian people evolved a national consciousness and outlook and were
drawn into the orbit of the nationalist movement. This national awaking found
expression in varied spheres of national life-social political cultural.
4. As the nationalist movement grew and gathered strength, new classes increasingly
organized themselves on a national scale and started various movements to remove
the obstacles impeding their growth. These new classes were offspring of the new
economic structure which were living under the same state regime.

In its first phase,

1. Indian nationalism had a very narrow social basis. The Intelligentsia was the
product of the modern education imparted in the new educational institutions,
established by the British in India in the first decades of the nineteenth century.
2. They had studied western culture and greatly assimilated its democratic and
nationalist ideas. They formed the first stratum of the Indian society to develop a
national consciousness and aspirations.
3. Raja Ram Mohan Roy and his group of enlightened Indians were the pioneers of
Indian nationalism. They were the exponents of the concept of the Indian nation
which they propagated among the people.
4. They initiated social-reform and religious-reform movements which represented
endeavours to remould the Indian society and religion in the spirit of the new
principles of democracy, rationalism, and nationalism. In fact, these movements
were the expression of the rising national democratic consciousness among a
section of the Indian people.
5. These founders and first fighters of Indian nationalism stood up for democratic
rights, such as the freedom of the Press, and put forth demands like the right of the
nation to have a voice in the administration of the country.

SECOND PHASE

1. The first phase extended till 1885 and culminated in the rise of the Indian National
Congress in that year. The second phase roughly covered the period from 1885 to
1905.
2. The Liberal intelligentsia who were at the helm of the Congress were the leaders of
the Indian nationalist movement during the second phase. Their ideology and
method determined the programme and forms of the movement which reflected the
interest of the development of the new bourgeoisie society in India.
3. The social basis of the movement was extended during this period to the educated
middle class which, by the end of nineteenth century, had appreciably grown as a
result of the expansion of modern educating, and to a section of the merchant class
which had developed during this period as a result of the growth of Indian and
international trade.
4. Modern industries also grew steadily during this period as a result of which the
class of industrialists emerged and began to gain strength they started orienting
towards the Congress which adopted the programme of industrialization of the
country and in 1905 actively organized the Swadeshi campaign.
5. The Indian National Congress, under the leadership of the Liberals, mainly voiced
the demands of the educated classes and the trading bourgeoisie such as the
Indianization of Services, the association of the Indians with the administrative
machinery of the state, the stoppage of economic drain etc.
 6. It also set forth such democratic demands as those of representative institutions
and civil liberties. Its methods of struggle dominated by Liberal conceptions were
principally constitutional agitation, effective argument, and fervent appeal to the
democratic conscience and traditions of the British people.
7. Since the British government did not satisfy the most vital demands of the Indian
nationalist movement, disillusionment set in among a section of the nationalists
regarding the ideology and methods of the Liberals. A group, with a new philosophy,
political ideology and conception of the methods of struggle crystallized within the
Congress.
8. Increasing unemployment among the educated middle class youths due to the
inability of the social and state apparatus to incorporate them, and further,
economic misery among the people due to devastating epidemics and famines at the
close of the nineteenth century, created favourable conditions for the growth of the
influence of the new group, the Extremists.
9. Various unpopular measures during the viceroyalty of Lord Curzon, such as the
Indian Universities Act and the Partition of Bengal further estranged the people
from the government and made the politically conscious middle class rally round
the Extremists who possessed such capable and self-sacrificing leaders as Bal
Gangadhar Tilak, Aurobindo Ghose, Bipin Chandra Pal and Lala Lajpat Rai. By 1905,
even some of the Liberals began to lose faith in the British government However,
they did not renounce their political philosophy and methodology of struggle.
10. The ideology of the Extremists was, in vital respects, the antithesis of that of the
Liberals. While the Liberals had a profound faith in the mission of Britain to raise
the Indian people to a high level of progressive social political and cultural
existence, the Extremists interpreted the British rule in India as the means of the
British to keep the Indian people in a state of subjection and economically exploit
them. Further, while the Liberals glorified the western culture, the Extremists
looked back to India’s past, idealized the ancient Hindu culture and desired to
resuscitate it.
11. Again the Extremists had no faith in the political efficacy of the Liberal method of
appealing to British Democracy. Instead, to secure a demand, they stood for
organizing extra-parliamentary pressure on the government such as the Boycott
campaign. The Extremists were also not satisfied merely with the demand of
administrative reform but set forth the goal of self-government which was endorsed
by the Liberals in 1906.
12. Political discontent, during the second phase, also expressed itself in the growth of
the terrorist movements. A small section of nationalist youths organized themselves
in terrorist bands and relied upon such methods such as assassination of individual
officials and sometimes fomenting of mutinies in the army for achieving political
freedom.

THIRD PHASE

1. The third phase in the development of the nationalist movement extended from
1905 to 1918. During this phase, the Liberals were supplanted by the Extremists as
the nationalist movement progressed.
2. In spite of the strong government repression, the nationalist movement registered
an advance.The political propaganda of the Extremists instilled a feeling of national
self-respect and self-confidence among the people who, instead of looking to the
British for political freedom as counselled by the Liberals, began to rely on their
own strength for achieving it.
 3. The movement, however, suffered from the defect that its leaders attempted to base
it on a resurrected Hindu philosophy. This, to some extent, mystified the movement
and weakened its secular character. It was also one of the reasons why it could not
appeal to the Muslims.
4. During the third phase, the Indian nationalist movement became militant and
challenging and acquired a wider social basis by the inclusion of sections of the
lower-middle class. The agitation for Home Rule during wartime further
strengthened the political consciousness of the people.
5. It was during this phase that sections of upper class Muslims developed political
consciousness and founded their all-India political organization in 1906, the Muslim
League. Due to a number of reasons, the rising political consciousness of the Muslim
upper and educated middle classes took a communal form, and resulted in the
formation of their organization on a communal basis.

FOURTH PHASE

1. The fourth phase in the evolution of the Indian nationalist movement commenced
from 1918 and extended roughly up to the Civil Disobedience Movement. One
striking development during this phase was that the nationalist movement gained a
broad mass basis and added to its arsenal the weapon of direct mass action.
2. The nationalist movement, which was hitherto restricted mainly to upper and
middle classes, further extended during this phase, to sections of the Indian masses.
There were a number of factors which brought about national awakening among the
Indian masses during the years immediately succeeding the war.
3. The post-war economic crisis, the disillusionment about the government promises,
and the increased repression by the state had seriously affected the people
including the peasantry and the working-class and they were in a state of great
ferment.
4. The great events in the international world such as a number of democratic
revolutions in European countries and the socialist revolution in Russia had deeply
stirred the consciousness of the Indian people.The Home Rule agitation during
wartime also had the effect of intensifying and extending political consciousness
among the Indian people.
5. The Indian capitalists who had become economically stronger during the war as a
result of industrial expansion, also, more actively than before, supported the Indian
National Congress.The Swadeshi and Boycott slogans of the Congress objectively
served the interests of industrialists who financially supported it.
6. Gandhi’s doctrine of class harmony and social peace and his support to the
Swadeshi resolution at the Calcutta Congress in 1919 made sections of the Indian
bourgeoisie support Gandhi, the Congress, and the nationalist movements organized
by the Congress under Gandhi’s leadership from this time onward.
7. It was from 1918 that the Indian industrial bourgeoisie began to exert a powerful
influence in determining the programme, policies, strategies, tactics and forms of
struggle of the Indian nationalist movement led by the Congress of which Gandhi
was the leader.
8. Another development during this phase was the growth of socialist and communist
groups in the country. By 1928, these groups succeeded in initiating independent
political and trade union movements of the working class based on the doctrine of
class struggle.
9. They further stood for a socialist state of India declaring it as the objective of the
India national movement While in the non-cooperation movement, politically
 conscious workers, who participated in it ,lacked an independent class programme,
after 1926 those who joined movements like the Simon Commission Boycott, did so
with their own slogans and flag, and frequently under their own leaders. Thus, after
1926, the Indian working class increasingly entered the nationalist movement as an
independent political unit. This was a new phenomenon in the history of the
nationalist movement.
10. It was during this period Congress defined its political objective from the nebulous
term Swaraj to that of Independence. Various Youth and Independence Leagues
which sprang up in the country also adopted Independence as their political goal.
11. Parallel to these developments, reactionary communal forces also began to organize
themselves during this period. The period witnessed a number of communal riots.
The phase culminated in the Civil Disobedience Movement organized by the
Congress under the leadership of Gandhi. It was the second mass movement in the
history of India nationalism.
12. The principal gains to the Indian nationalist movement during this phase were the
acquisition of a mass basis, the definition of its goal as Independence, the entry of a
section of the working class into the movement as an independent political force,
the growth of various Youth and Independence Leagues, and the wider participation
of peasants in the movement.
13. The factors which had a retarding influence on the movement were mainly the
combining of religion with politics by Gandhi, with the result that the national
consciousness was befogged and national movement confused; the increased grip of
the capitalists over the congress organization and the resultant modulation of its
programme and policies to serve their sectional interest at the expense of national
advance; and the accentuation of communal feelings.

FIFTH PHASE

1. The next phase covers the period from 1934 to 1939, the year of the outbreak of
World War II. There were a number of new developments during this period. A
section of Congressmen lost their confidence in the ideology, programmes and
methods of Gandhi and formed the Congress Socialist Party which stood for the
organization of the workers and peasants on class lines, and made them the motive
force of the nationalist movement.
2. The party, however, remained heterogeneous, being composed of groups who broke
from Gandhism in varying degrees and having a petty-bourgeois social basis. There
also grew up other dissident tendencies from Gandhism like the Forward Bloc led
by Subhas Chandra Bose.
3. Another development was the steady growth of the movements of the depressed
classes. The Muslim League also, organizationally and politically, grew stronger in
the final years of this period Further, a number of other Muslim organizations, both
of nationalist and communal politics, also sprang up.
4. The rapid growth of the Communist Party increasingly spreading its influence
among students, workers and Kisans, also was another significant development. The
rapid growth of the peasant movement was one of the striking developments during
this period Larger and larger sections of peasantry developed national and class
consciousness.
5. Further, they began to evolve their own class organization, class leadership,
programmes, slogans and flags. Hitherto, the politically awakened peasants had
followed the Congress leadership; henceforth, a large section of them followed its
 own leaders, put forth their own class demands including those of the abolition of
landlordism itself and the repudiation of all debts.
6. The All India Kisan Sabha, the organization of the conscious section of the Indian
peasantry, formulated for its objective the socialist state of India. It organized
independent struggles of the Kisans and joined the nationalist movement as an
independent unit.
7. Another remarkable development during this phase was the growth of the
democratic struggle of the people of the Indian states with a programme of
demands such as the abolition of state monopoly, representative institutions, civil
liberties, and others. The states ‘peoples’ movement was mainly controlled by the
merchant class of these states. The Indian National Congress supported and aided
the struggle of the people of these states.
8. Another development of importance during this period was the growing awakening
among the nationalities constituting the Indian people.This awakening was reflected
in their demands of the reconstitution of provinces on a linguistic basis. The
movements of such nationalities as the Andhra, the Oriyas, the Karnatakis, and
others, which had awakened to life and which felt and expressed the urge to be
integrated into distinct political administrative zones based on common language,
revealed this new development.
9. The rise of an independent Kisan movement, the growth of socialist forces, the
movements of awakened nationalities and other developments, however still
represented only minority tendencies within the nationalist movement. The
national movement still remained essentially determined and dominated by the
Gandhian outlook and Gandhi’s political philosophy and leadership. It still, in the
main, reflected the interests of the capitalists and other upper classes.
10. However, the new forces and movements had begun to exert some pressure of the
Indian National Congress as a result of which the latter included in its programme a
charter of fundamental rights guaranteeing civil liberties and alleviatory economic
measures to the workers and peasants.
11. The Indian National Congress, the premier national organization in the country and
the principal leader of the nationalist movement, also recognized the cultural and
other aspirations of awakened nationalities, stood for cultural autonomy and
linguistic provinces and even recognized the right of the populations of the
provinces reconstituted on the linguistic basis to secede from the Indian Federation
of the future free India if they so desired.

However, a struggle that was increasingly sharpening went on among the various social
classes within the nationalist movement for the hegemony of the movement. The political
groups representing workers, Kisans and left sections of the middle classes, were striving
more and more; as they gathered more political consciousness and independent
organizational strength, to influence the programme and policies of the Congress which
had hitherto been appreciably controlled by the capitalist class. The awakened
nationalities were also increasingly pressing their demands vigorously for the removal of
the obstacles which thwarted their free and full development.

Modernization of Indian Tradition

Modernization is a composite concept It is also an ideological concept. The models of

modernization covary with the choice of ideologies. The composite nature of this concept
renders it pervasive in the vocabulary of social sciences and evokes its kinship with
concepts like development, growth, evolution and progress. In the book on Essays on
Modernization in India Yogendra Singh has analyzed the varied and complex processes
involved in the modernization in India, the forces released by it and their bearing on the
stability, creativity and development in India as a dynamic nation and composite
civilization.

The emphasis on historicity in preference to universality defining the context of

modernization the pre-eminence of structural changes in society to render the adaptive
process of modernization successful in the developing countries particularly India and the
eclectic nature of cultural and ideological response of India to the challenges of
modernization represent some of the unifying principles. Singh portrays the challenges
and contradictions that India encounters in the course of its modernization.

Modernization is a process associated with the sweeping changes that took place in
the society, particularly social, economic, political and cultural changes. It
represents substantial breaks with traditional society. Modernization is an idea
before it is a process. As it is an idea, there is no agreement among social scientists
on its meaning and interpretation. The concept of modernization, emerged as an
explanation of how Western countries/ societies developed through capitalism.

According to this approach, modernization depends primarily on introduction of

technology and the knowledge required making use of it. Besides, several social and
political prerequisites have been identified to make modernization possible. Some of these
prerequisites are:

1. Increased levels of education;

2. Development of mass media;
3. Accessible transport and communication;
4. Democratic political institutions;
5. More urban and mobile population;
6. Nuclear family in place of extended family;
7. Complex division of labour;
8. Declining public influence of religion, and;
9. Developed markets for exchange of goods and services in place of traditional ways
of meeting such needs.

Modernization is, thus, supposed to be the result of the presence of these

prerequisites in the social system. It is clear that the term modernization has been used
here in a very broad sense. We, therefore, find different views about the scope and area to
be covered by the concept of modernization.

Debate on Concept of Modernization

1. Some sociologists limit modernization to its structural aspect, others

emphasise its cultural dimension. A few studies highlight the issue of political
modernization and still others analyze its psychological meaning. Of course,
the treatment of the concept in terms of it being a process of social change is found
in writings of many scholars.
2. Daniel Thorner in his essay on ‘Modernization’ explains the modernization in these
words: “modernization is the current term for an old process of social change
whereby less developed society’s acquired characteristics common to more
 developed societies.” He further writes “Modernization, therefore, is the
process of social change in which development is the economic component”.
3. Obviously this understanding of the term corresponds with the meaning which we
have given to the term at the beginning of our discussion.
Accordingly, modernization is a process of change, which takes a country from
underdevelopment to development It produces social environment for
economic development. The growths in industrialization, urbanization, national
income and per capital income are taken as criteria of development.
4. However, while accepting the economic criteria of development, some
sociologists have added non-economic criteria to judge development. They
argue that rising output alone is not sufficient to assess the level of
development. A society has to move from rising output to self-sustaining growth.
Therefore, non-economic criteria such as the level of education, function of
media, growth of communication and social norms conducive to change have
to be taken into consideration.
5. The meaning of modernization given above incorporates, primarily, structural
aspects of change. In other words, under modernization structural transformation
takes place in economy, polity and social institution. It is to be noted here that the
concept of modernization has also been explained in cultural terms. In cultural term,
modernization implies change in values and attitudes.
6. Modernity involves values and norms that are universal in nature. Explaining this
aspect of modernization Yogendra Singh suggests that ‘modernization implies a
rational attitude towards issues and their evaluation from a universal view
point’. Thus, technological advancement and economic growth are not the sole
criterion to judge the level of modernization of the society. The commitment to
scientific world view and humanistic ideas are equally important.
7. Moreover, the idea of modernization has also been analyzed in terms of the paired
concepts of tradition and modernity. It has been argued that modernity stands as
opposite to tradition. In this sense, all the underdeveloped societies are
characterized as traditional and the developed societies as modern.
Modernization, thus, implies a change from tradition to modernity. Change
occurs according to this view, in predicable direction. In other words, in order
to modernize, every society has to follow the same direction and adopt a
similar path. All the existing values and structures have to be replaced by the new
values and structures.
8. Nonetheless, sociologists from the developing countries are critical of this
understanding of modernization. They maintain that modernization does not
stand as a polar opposite to tradition. Traditional values and institutions are
not necessarily discarded while taking up new values in the process of change.
Society adopts new values because they are considered more efficient and
rewarding. In view of this, these sociologists hold that modernization would
develop typical forms in different societies. Patterns of modernization, thus, may
vary from society to society. The discussion shows that processes of modernization
involve both structural and cultural dimensions.

TRADITION:
According to Yogendra Singh, tradition refers to those ‘value-themes’ which
encompass the entire social system of Indian society prior to the beginning of
modernization. These value themes were organized on the principles of hierarchy,
holism, continuity and transcendence. These four value themes were deeply
interlocked with other elements of Indian social structure:

1. Hierarchy was engrained in the system of caste and subcaste stratification. It was
also there in the Hindu concepts of nature, Occupational lifecycles [Ashramas] and
moral duties [Dharmas].
2. Holism implied a relationship between individual and group in which the former
was encompassed by the later in respect of duties and rights. Here precedence was
given to community or sangha, not the individual. This over shadowing of individual
by collectivity persisted all along the line of traditional social structure, e.g. family,
village community, caste and nation.
3. Continuity in Hinduism was symbolized by principles of karma, transmigration of
soul and a cyclical view of change. Communalism in traditional social system was
reinforced through the value system of continuity.
4. The principle of transcendence also posited that legitimating of traditional values
could never be challenged on grounds of rationality derived from the non-sacred or
profane scales of evaluation. It formed a super concept contributing to integration
as well as rationalization of the other value themes of the tradition.

The organization of tradition based on these value-components could not be called typical
only of the Indian society, since at one level similar phenomenon also existed in the
traditional West The divergence between the two traditions, however, arose from their
unique social heritage, existential situation and historicity of circumstances.

Modernization of Indian Tradition:

Some sociologists make a distinction between social change and modernization in order to
assess the nature of change in the traditional Indian society. Though, social change
occurred in traditional India. It was essentially pre-modern in nature. One
traditional institution was just replaced by the other and no basic structural change
took place in social system and culture.

Historically, modernization in India started from the establishment of the British

rule and had continued even after the independence. The nature and direction of
modernization during these two phases have been different.

Initially, the contact with British led to growth of a modernizing sub-culture or Little
tradition of Westernization, especially during the seventeenth century in Bengal,
Madras and Bombay, where a small nucleus of interpreters, trader-cum-middlemen
emerged who were slowly being socialized to Western ways. Subsequently, there also
emerged sects which emphasized assimilation of Western cultural norms, and Western
modes of learning (e.g. Brahmo Samaj, Prarthana Samaj, etc.); these also ran a crusade
against obscurantism in Hindu traditions. These movements on one hand and the
consolidation of the British power towards the middle of the nineteenth century on other
finally led to the institution of a modernizing Great tradition. Its components were :

1. The contact with the West brought about far reaching changes in social structure
and cultural institutions. Changes were witnessed in almost all-important areas
of life. The British administration introduced new arrangements in legal
agrarian, educational and administrative domains. Most of these led to
structural modernization.
 2. For instance, the bureaucratic system of administration and judiciary
introduced by them were based on modern rational norms, which replaced
the traditional Indian legal norms, based on the principle of hierarchy and
ascription.
3. A similar transformation took place in the system of education and agrarian
structure.The Western system of education was introduced towards the middle of
the nineteenth century and expanded significantly thereafter.
4. New patterns of land settlements such as Zamindari, Ryotwari and Mahalwari
covering the whole of British India resulted in systematization of revenue
administration.
5. Some other areas experiencing modernizing trends were industrialization,
urbanization, transport and communication, army and the emergence of
industrial working class and so forth.
6. The emergence and growth of a nationalist political leadership was also the
result of growing modernization of Indian society. In fact the nationalist
leadership became so strong that freedom movement itself generated a new culture
of modernization.

It is apparent from the above that the colonial phase of modernization created wide
networks of structure and culture which were modern and had an all India appeal.
There was, however, one important feature of Indian modernization during the British-
period The growth of this process was selective and segmental. It was not integrated with
the micro-structures of Indian society, such as family, caste and village community. At
these levels, the British by and large followed a policy of least interference, especially after
the rebellion of1857. Moreover, some British administrators were wrongly impressed by
the staticness and autonomy of these microstructures compared with the rest of the Indian
society. This was especially so about the notion of village community and importance
attributed to caste. For a long time caste and ethnic factors were given recognition in
recruitment of officers to army and middle and lower ranks of bureaucracy. Later, in the
twentieth century, as the nationalist movement gathered momentum, a communal
electorate system was introduced. These historical factors have deeply influenced the
process of modernization which followed during the post-colonial period. It increased the
contingency of traditional institutions and symbolisms to the Indian process of
modernization.

Freedom movement ushered in a new political culture of modernization. At its

centre was the personality of Mahatma Gandhi whose one foot was always deeply
embedded in tradition. His emergence during the peak of Westernization process in
India signifies an orthogenetic response of Indian tradition to the new challenges of
social change. Gandhi successfully mobilized Indian people for the attainment of
freedom, but he could not, however, avert one serious breakdown in the process…
the partition of India into two independent nations. As we mentioned above, it
followed from the uneven growth of subcultural traditions of modernization in
Hinduism and Islam, each conditioned by unique historicity of their own. The quest
for a separate nationhood by the Muslim community in India reflected a crisis of
aspiration along with that of confidence.

After the independence modernization process has undergone some fundamental

changes. Every domain of social system is under the active influence of modernizing
process. Modernization has, now, become an integral part of the developmental strategy.
Now modernization has been envisaged for all levels of cultural and structural systems.
Discontinuity in modernization between macro-structures and micro-structures and
between the Little and Great traditions, as during the British regime, has now been
consciously abolished.

1. The political system has assumed a new shape after adoption of the parliamentary
form of government based on adult franchise. Political parties have emerged as
powerful organs of the system. Thus, democratic political structure has effectively
led to increasing political consciousness among the people. The process of
politicization has further, been accelerated through the Panchayat Raj institutions.
2. The foundations of traditional family structure have come under influence of legal
reforms in marriage and inheritance. The family introduced equalitarian norms in
family leading to raised status of women.
3. Community Development Projects have carried the cultural norms and role-
structures of modernity to each and every village in India, and this, coupled with
introduction of land reforms and elective village panchayats, has initiated villagers
to a bureaucratic form of participation in local level management and
administration of justice.
4. Similarly, caste has assumed new functional roles. It has acquired an associational
character. New consciousness has emerged among dalits. Increasing role of caste in
politics is a pointer to this trend
5. Moreover, land reforms, too, have brought structural transformation in agrarian
social structure. However, it is pertinent to call attention to the fact that
modernization in India has not been uniformly progressive movement. Two crucial
issues may be pointed out in this regard :
 First in the process of modernization several traditional institutions and activities
have been reinforced For example, religious preachers are using modern media to
spread their ideas. Now, there are television channels in India exclusively developed
to religious preaching. Caste associations are using new modes of communication to
consolidate their position.
 Second inconsistencies are visible in patterns of modernization. Though structural
change is witnessed in family, joint family loyalties and norms still prevail.
Democratic participation is increasing despite of increasing caste conflicts.

Thus, modernization in India has not thoroughly dispensed with traditional

institutions. Yogendra Singh has, appropriately, highlighted this fact in his study
entitled Modernization of Indian Tradition. He writes, “The form of traditional
institutions may remain intact but their substance might undergo major transformations
incorporating modernization.” In this sense modernization process in India has acquired a
typical form. Traditional institutions have displayed their potential for adaptations in
course of change.

CONTINUITY AND BREAKDOWNS IN MODERNIZATION IN INDIA

According to Eisenstaedt, modernization, in its initial stages in India, did not lead to any
serious breakdown because of the peculiar structural characteristics of the Indian society.
Here, cultural system was fairly independent of political system. Louis Dumont writes:
This domain of polity or artha is, in the dominant tradition, relatively autonomous with
regard to absolute values; there was also independence between the political system and
the system of caste stratification.’ Castes had their own panchayats and plural traditions,
and similarly there also existed autonomy for groups and regional communities. This
inter-structural autonomy facilitated assimilation of modernizing innovations,
without introducing major breakdown. Modernity, however, mainly developed as a
sub-culture without pervasive expansion in all sectors of life.

The colonial phase of modernization did not seriously articulate many structural
challenges which now with the totalization of this process in free India implies. As
segmental nature of modernization becomes encompassing, relevance of structural
autonomy ceases to operate as a shock absorber. Changes in political system begin
increasingly to impinge upon the system of stratification (caste, class, ethnic
communities), and these together create serious stresses for the cultural system as a
whole. The cultural pre-requisites of a comprehensive modernization necessitate
adaptive changes in the system of values which come in direct confrontation with
tradition cultural values and norms. For instance, secularism, untouchability, non-
parochialism are some cultural demands of modernization in contemporary India which
its traditional value system continues to resist Important trends of social and cultural
change in India which are relevant to the process of modernization are,

1. In cultural sphere, major changes have been introduced by legislations.

2. These seek to abolish social inequalities and exploitations handed down bytradition
and accord democratic rights and constitutional privileges to all members of society.
3. This has led to a trend away from Sanskritisation (Emulation of the Great tradition)
and towards formation of new identities and associations of castes, regional groups
and tribes.
4. These processes are accelerated by ‘Great traditions’ of modernization such as,
urbanization, industrialization, spread of education and politicization.
5. The traditional structures and loyalties are being mobilized for objectives which are
essentially modern and an increased emphasis is on protest movements.

However, the tradition also gets reinforcement in the process; modern media of
communication and transport are increasingly used for spreading ritual order and
for national organization of religious groups and their mode of activities and social
participation. There is a tendency among religious sects to organize themselves on
rational bureaucratic model and the previous fission of each new sect form the
parent body has now changed into strong orientation towards fusion.

Inconsistencies are also there in structural changes that India has undergone during
the postcolonial phase of modernization. These are :

1. Micro-structures like caste, family and village community have retained their
traditional character. Caste has shown unexpected elasticity and latent potential
for adaptation with modern institutions such as democratic participation, political
party organization and trade unionism, and it persists unabatedly. Joint family
loyalties and particularistic norms continue to prevail.
2. These contradictions are, however, further magnified at the level of
macrostructures, such as the political system, bureaucracy, elite structure,
industry and economy.
3. The post-colonial period of modernization had homogeneity in elite
structure. These elite from industrial civil and military bureaucracies, as well as
political spheres came from similar class- caste stratum; they had equitable
exposure to Western education and socialization. They also had uniformity of
ideologies and aspirations.This was because the social base for recruitment of these
elite was limited.
 4. Elite structure has fairly widened during the post-Independence period; it may
not be equitable in terms of stratification system, but in cultural background there is
enough representativeness which leads to many contradictions.
5. A gap is specially coming into being between political elite and non- political
elite; the former are less Westernized and externally at least identify with
traditional cultural symbolisms more strongly than the latter.
6. There is also evidence that, in the course of three five-year plans additional income
generated by economic investment has gone in favour of only the well-to-do classes
to the detriment of poorer sections. Planning has thus accentuated and sharpened
the gaps in social stratification.
7. This along with slow rate of economic growth and rapid increase in population
creates additional intensities for structural tensions.
8. Despite the years of effort at industrialization, India continues to be rural-peasant
dominated society with general poverty of living standards.

Thus, major potential sources of breakdown in the Indian process of modernization

may, in one form or another, be attributed to structural inconsistencies, such as :

1. Democratization without spread of civic culture (education),

2. Bureaucratization without commitment to universalistic norms,
3. Rise in media participation (communication) and aspiration, without proportionate
increase in resources and distributive justice,
4. Verbalization of a welfare ideology without its diffusion in social structure and its
implementation as a social policy,
5. Over-urbanization without industrialization, and
6. Finally modernization without meaningful change in the stratification system.

Gunnar Myrdal refers to similar impediments to modernization in India and other

Asian countries in his work Asian Drama. According to him,

1. Nationalism and democratic institutions themselves have grown in a structurally

uneven form in these countries.
 Gunnar Myrdal gave the concepts of
 Instrumental Values are pre condition for rise of modernity. Goal orientation,
rationality are some of its characteristics. While,
 Differential Values manifest in people belonging to different cultures, social
background and traditions. Therefore impact of modernity varies on these axes.
 Therefore, Instrumental values which are precursor of modernity, when introduced,
they contest with the differential values of society. So the impact/benefits of
modernity varies among societies and also with is society. (Classes)
2. In Europe, he says, strong independent State with a fairly effective government and
a common pattern of law enforcement, preceded nationalism, and both preceded
democracy. In South Asian countries democratic ideology has, due to special
historicity, preceded strong and independent State and effective government, and
this is further complicated by onslaught of nationalism. This uneven historicity goes
along with economic dependence of these countries on developed nations and slow
rate of economic growth and still slower pace in institutional changes.
3. According to Myrdal India, which has a more viable size of intellectuals and middle
classes necessary for democracy, planned economic growth has not made as deep
an impact towards liberalizing the structural bottlenecks for modernization.
 4. According to him, India’s ‘soft-state’ policy after Independence inhibited its
leadership from going to the root of the problem, that is, introduction of basic
changes in the institutional structure of society.
5. The inegalitarian structure of society continued to grow and consolidate itself; there
developed a long gap between verbalization and implementation of policies of
reform;
6. The decentralization of power in rural sectors led to concentration of power in the
hands of a petty plutocracy. Also the leadership of the country as a whole remained
with those who are opponents of real economic and social change.

Rustos approach to modernity:

W.W. Rustow wrote a book “Economic development – a non communist manifesto” his
approach was based on Market capitalism. He rejects any ideological mooning to process
of modernization. According to his theory, All Nations in globalised age will undergo same
processes in their course of development. He proposed five stage, in which first stage is
Primitive Stage, characterized by theological, superstitions and backward society. In 2nd
stage, which he calls Pre-take off stage. There are changes in these societies. Live exposure
to colonialism, trade, modern education preparing ground for modernity. Next stage is
Take off. In which National aspirations will be manifested in protest against outsiders. So
Independence is the objective in this stage.4th stage is Drive towards maternity. In this
stage by controlling state power and policies. Nation embraces rationality, technology, skill
and multipronged approach to developed 5th stage is stage of mass consumption. In
which Aircraft come to auto pilot mode, country becomes developed Rate of mobility
increases and citizen become right conscious. Some sociologist in India are influenced by
Rustow’s writing. It reflects in their unidirectional approach to modernity.

Structural functionalist view – M.N. Srinivas

In opinion of Srinivas modernity is value loaded concept It establishes superior -inferior
stereotype between modern-traditional It looks down upon traditional Everything modern
is not good. Therefore modernity is not a valid concept in India. So he developed concepts
like westernization, Sanskritisation. Which reflect on continuity as well as change.

Morxist/ Dialectial approach to modernity in India

1. Dialectics may have both conflicts and contradictions. So applying dialectical

approach to Indian modernity gives the Marxian understanding of social change. In
Indian Sociology DP.Mukharjee was early Marxist who wrote book “Social
structures of values” reflecting on social change. He argues that India had well
defined body of values which were derived from culture and religion. But these
were class values forced by brain maniacal class on masses. So he contradict
indological notion of voluntary value consensus.
2. Instead value consensus was forced on masses through dominant class of Brahmins.
After Islamic invasion, there was percolation Islamic values in Indian society. This
led to dialectics between Hindu cultural values and Islamic values. The oppressed
classes which were suffocating under brahmanic value domination got a chance to
liberate themselves. This led to conversion of lower castes to Islam. The dialectical
conflicted led to destruction of temples, mosques and cruel taxes by elites of each
religion.
 3. When British arrived in India. They along with them brought new value system.
Modern education spread this value system process of institutionalization of
modern occupation such as Army, bankers, lawyers, happened in this period. But
Indians were also committed to their cultural values. This was reflected in restless
emerging middle classes in British India. For example Muting of 1857 shows the
dialectics between values of institutions (Army) and cultural values of sepoys.
4. Finally, he argues that in independent India, we have to sort out these contradiction
of values. For that we noed constructive politices by state. Modern education based
on modern values i.e. inclusiveness, humanism, welfare will lead to uniformisation
of values. Secularism, democracy and equality should be basis of socialism in India.]
5. Further, A.R. Desai Applied Marxian approach through study of changes in made of
production he views national movement as creation of class interest While
contemporary Marxists lie Randhir Singh argues that modernization of Indian
tradition has given way to rise of petty-bourgeoisie in the form of rich landlords,
owners of small industry, controllers of cooperatives, major beneficiaries of
horticulture etc. He argues that capitalistic development is taking place in Indian
agriculture which was earlier traditional People from the poverty ridden zone of
India are migrating to resource rich agricultural region of country. It is resulting in
alienation, exploitation and pauperization of masses.
6. In tribal belts, expansion of industry, dams, mining projects and urbanization have
produced massive displacement of tribals. It has created problem of developmental
refuge.
7. He sees the modernization in field of education through dialectics of class interest
Education actually was envisaged to promote equality end to end hierarchy but he
says that it has led to class schools- Good quality private education, which has
inbuilt structure of better jobs in future and Mass School -paid through public
money where quality of education is low. And masses are enrolled here. This
commercialization of education has created gap between haves and have nots.
8. Therefore, modernization of India has led to consolidation of class interest Land is
consolidating in few hands. 80% of industrial wealth in just 19% of industrialists. So
it is leading to consolidation or prosperity in upper strata and mossifciation of
poverty. This is creating paradox of development and becoming reason for social
discontent.

CONCLUDING ANALYSIS:

1. The emergent tensions caused by process of modernization in India, direct

our attention to much needed further coordination in the strategy of
change. Contradictions are emerging in the system at various levels as a result of
uncoordinated institutional reforms and economic measures introduced for
modernization during the post-Independence period.
2. These contradictions, however, also inherit and symbolize the frictions caused by
upward movement of hitherto suppressed aspirations and interests of groups.
Protest movements whether disguised (like Sanskritisation, Islamization, formation
of parochial associations based on caste, language and regional culture) or overt
(Centre-State tensions) are inevitable in democratic transition to modernization.
3. These, of course, indicate the specific areas where institutional and other reforms
could further be accelerated to remove friction in the process of change.
Modernization should thus proceed by a series of conciliatory steps through a
forceful strategy of mobilization in the course of the developmental process. The
need is also simultaneously to reinforce the democratic values and institutions.
 Given a democratic political framework, there exists a built-in mechanism in this
system to build pressures for removal of inconsistencies emerging from
uncoordinated changes in the ‘conditions’ of modernization; but the same cannot be
said to be true for other forms of totalitarian political systems.
4. On the whole it appears that, despite continual tensions and contradictions,
chances of the institutional breakdown are minimal democratic values have
fairly institutionalized in the political system; cultural gap which has recently
widened between various levels of the elite does not go far enough to
introduce major conflict about the ideology of modernization.
5. Caste, which represents institutionalized form of inequality sanctioned by tradition
now fights battles against inequality and in egalitarianism by its own rational self-
transformation into associations: many independent or categorical values of
tradition have shown a surprising degree of elasticity of adapt them selves to the
cultural system of modernization.
6. Some of these traditions even thrive as modernization processes accelerate without
creating major contradictions. In the realm of material resources too, the recent
‘agricultural revolution’ in the country side has created a new atmosphere of
optimism for future progress. This, along with people’s increasing awareness to
curb the birth-rate may point towards new hopeful signs of modernization without
a breakdown. A constant coordination of mobilization with conciliation is a pre-
requisite for democratic form of modernization in India.

Protests and Movements during the Colonial Period and Social Reforms

Understanding Protest and Movement

 An element of dissatisfaction with the existing system can be found in every

society. Dissatisfaction may be caused by poverty, social discrimination or
lack of privilege. People may develop a strong desire to change the situation
by raising their voices against the existing order. They may start questioning
established practices of society. This difference of opinion actually reflects a
desire for change. Social movements emerge under this situation. However, a
movement does not occur suddenly. It begins with dissent, moves towards
protests and finally takes the form of a social movement. This sequence –
dissent, protest and social movements – represents different phases of social
change. But in some cases all these may be in operation at the same time.
 The term dissent refers to ideas and activities which are different from those
prevailing in a society at a given point of time. Differences of opinion and
disagreement on certain issues are bases of dissent. Dissent is thus the
beginning of a movement for change. For example, the struggle against the
inhuman practice of untouchability in India was initiated only when the people who
were suffering from this cruel practice raised their voices against it.
 Protest is generally specific in nature. When dissent is expressed openly it
assumes the form of protest When a dissenting opinion crystallizes further
the situation of protest is created. Thus protest, in order to be meaningful has
to be supported by dissent in respect of the institutional arrangements
prevailing in society at a given point of time. In fact, a consciousness of injustice
and deprivation takes place at this stage. Accordingly, we may say that the social
sharing of discrimination and deprivation is the starting point of protest. Thus, we
may say that dissent expresses dissatisfaction with the existing situation and
 registers disagreement Protest, on the other hand, is a formal declaration of dissent
and represents a more crystallized state of opposition and conflict.
 Social movements are of great sociological interest because they are a major
source of social change. A social movement is a sustained collective effort that
focuses on some aspect of social change. M.S.A Rao says that a social movement
essentially involves sustained collective mobilization through either informal or
formal organization and is generally oriented towards bringing about change in the
existing system of relationships. Rao considers ideology as an important component
of a social movement.
 Protests and movements during colonial period mainly aimed at socio-
religious reform. A reform movement attempts to improve conditions within an
existing social system without changing the fundamental structure of the society
itself. Reforms are often linked with belief systems, rituals and life styles of the
concerned people. There are several examples of reform movements in India. The
most well-known reform movement was the Bhakti (devotional) movement of
medieval India. It was an all India movement which involved the lower caste people,
and the poor. It protested against ritualism and caste barriers. Thus, the primary
objective of the movement was to reform world view and social practices of the
people. It never tried to transform the social system radically, but advocated partial
changes in the value system.
 Several reform movements also engendered the socio-cultural regeneration,
which occurred in the nineteenth century in India. It started with the formation
of the Brahmo Samaj in Bengal in 1828 which had branches in several parts of the
country.

According to K. L. Sharma Socio-religious reforms in British India were felt

necessary due to three reasons:

1. The selection of texts from various commentaries on the code of Manu had not
always been enlightened;
2. The reliance on law courts for interpretation had resulted in greater conservatism;
3. The law, as applied by the law courts and British judges, was a combination of
ancient Hindu and Victorian English conservatism, particularly in regard to women,
inheritance, marriage and the rights of married women.

The right to property of individual members in a joint family or the granting of property
right to women took many years from their acceptance in letter to their actual acceptance.
The joint family, caste and Hinduism have always been the pivoted institutions and have
discouraged any legislation which would weaken them manifestly or even latently.

Besides these reasons, there were several socio-cultural and economic problems which
demanded mass mobilization, awakening and action against the British Raj, feudals and
upper sections of society. There was a need to attack the institutional mechanisms, which
had made society rigid and exploitative.

According to A.R. Desai reform movements during British period were an

expression of national awakening due to contradictions between the old value
system and new socio-economic realities.

1. The aim of these movements was to revive the old religion in the context of
nationalism and democracy as the cardinal principles for the emergence of modern
India. Modern society established liberty, freedom of competition, contact and
 freedom of the individual to own and manipulate property at will Individualism was
its keynote in contrast to the pre-capitalist society which was authoritarian in
character; maintained social distinctions based on birth and sex, and subordinated
the individual to caste and the joint family system.
2. The new society demanded as the very condition of its development, the abolition of
privileges based on birth or sex. The reform movements were against medievalism
in socio-cultural realms. They attacked the caste system and its allied institutions,
polytheism, superfluous religious rites and dogmas.
3. These religio-reform movements were national in content but religious in form.

Apart from the Brahmo Samaj in Bengal the Prarthana Samaj in Maharashtra and the Arya
Samaj in Punjab and north India were some of the other reform movements among the
Hindus. The work of reformation was also undertaken by other organizations which were
led by the backward castes and the members of other religious groups. For example, the
Satya Sodhak Samaj of Jotiba Phule in Maharashtra and the Sri Narayan Dharma
Paripalana Sabha in Kerala were started by the backward castes. Similarly, the Ahmadiya
and Aligarh movements represented the spirit of reform among the Muslims. The Sikhs
had their Singh Sabha and the Parsees, the Rehnumai Mazdeyan Sabha. The major
concerns of these movements and organizations were no doubt religious reform, but the
social content was not missing from them. These movements brought about remarkable
changes in the life of the people.

THE BRAHMO SAMAJ

Raja Ram Mohan Roy is considered to be the father of modern Indian renaissance. Besides
English and Bengali, Ram Mohan Roy acquired knowledge of Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic.
He also knew Hebrew, Latin and Greek. He made a deep study of Hindu and Muslim laws,
literature and philosophy. He believed in the progressive reform of religion and a society
with a liberal outlook. Ram Mohan Roy did not believe in worshipping the images of
God. Monotheism was his main slogan.

On 20 August 1828, he founded the Brahmo Samaj, the literal meaning of which is “One
God Society”. The orthodox Hindus did not cherish the ideals of this institution, but
generally people welcomed this new organization. Ram Mohan Roy was a secularist as he
was inspired by Christianity, Islam and the Upanishads. He had great faith in the
uncompromising monotheism of Islam. He learnt about the concept of the unity of God
as an essence of Hinduism from the study of the Upanishads, Brahma Sutras and Gita.

1. Ram Mohan Roy thought that without sacrificing or discarding the genuine spiritual
and cultural heritage, India could not have a new philosophy, absorbing and
assimilating the modernism imported from the west.
2. He strongly advocated use of modern science and technology in education and also
use of the English language. Ram Mohan Roy was, in fact, a rationalist and a pioneer
of English education and enlightened journalism.
3. He championed the cause of the exploited peasantry.
4. His main aim was to relate religion to all aspects of life – individual social and
national
5. Universal theism was his message. He, however, used the Vedas and the Upanishads,
in worship, sermons and devotional music, with emphasis on the universality of
their contents.
6. Ram Mohan Roy champion of the cause of women. He worked against irrational
institutions like sati and child marriage. Through the Brahmo Samaj, he advocated
 for women. Inheritance of property for women, and inter-caste marriage were
special programmes undertaken by the Brahmo Samaj.
7. He was against the caste system, as it put barriers in the ways of growth of Indian
society. Ram Mohan Roy was essentially a democrat and humanist.
8. He did not hesitate in borrowing well from the British Raj and western culture. The
Brahmo Samaj was an institution for all sorts of people, without distinction, for the
workship of the some Supreme God, without idolatry.

However, the historians R.C. Majumdar, H.C. Roychaudhuri and Kalikinker Datta are
of the view that Ram Mohan Roy never regarded himself as anything but a Hindu. He
stoutly denied that he had founded a different sect. He always entertained the recital of the
Vedas even by orthodox Brahmans. No non Brahmana was allowed in the Brahmo Sabha
room. Ram Mohan Roy himself wore the sacred thread of the Brahmanas up to his death.

1. Debendranath Tagore provided a solid organizational set-up to the Brahmo Samaj

after the death of Ram Mohan Roy in England.
2. He decided to make the propagation of ‘Brahmo Dharma’ the main programme or
the Brahmo Samaj. His Tattva Bodhini Sabha, or Truth Teaching Society, preached
the Vedas and Vedantism as the basic of the Samaj.
3. The system of initiation and form of divine service were introduced by the new
leader. He maintained and carried the best traditions of the days of Ram Mohan Roy.
4. He gave a new direction to Brahminism by abandoning belief in the infallibility of
scriptures. The Samaj continued to work for ameliorating the condition of women
and children and for modernization of education.
5. A new phase began with the emergence of the dynamic personality of Keshub
Chandra Sen. Sen advocated radical reforms with the zeal of a missionary.
6. His mission was to broaden the activities of the Brahmo movement and to extend it
to other parts of the country. In 1867, the Brahmo Samaj started functioning at
Bombay under the leadership of Ranade and Bhandarkar.
7. It organized several programmes in Madras. Keshub fervent devotion, passionate
enthusiasm and powerful eloquence gave a new life to the Samaj.
8. His rationalistic principles reached new heights. The true spirit of repentance and
devotional fervour increased the strength of the movement. He toured Madras and
Bombay and other places to propagate the ideals of the Samaj.

Debendranath and Keshub soon fell out, as the two cherished different ways of functioning
within the Samaj. Debendranath had a radical approach. In 1866, Keshub established the
Brahmo Samaj of India. The parent body was known as the Adi Brahmo Samaj. The new
organization tried to foster the sense of spiritual and national unity in India. Keshub visit
to England in 1869 spread the message of the Samaj in the West.

1. The splinter Samaj advocated radical changes, including complete abolition of the
caste system.
2. Female emancipation and female education received top priority.
3. Due to Christian influence, greater emphasis was put on the sense of sin, the spirit of
repentance, and the efficacy of prayer.
4. Religion was treated as a practical recourse to solve human problems rather than a
dogmatic doctrine.
5. His thesis of ‘New Dispensation (Nava Vidhan) declared on 25 January1880
promoted a new synthesis of different religions.
The new phase in the Brahmo Samaj emerged when some followers of Keshub Chandra
Sen left him and founded the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj. The new organization was founded
for the following reasons:

1. The demand for the introduction of a new constitution was not accepted ;
2. There was disagreement on the question of adesha or Divine Command;
3. Keshub Chandra Sen’s daughter was married to the prince of Cooch Bihar, in
violation of the Native Marriage Act of 1872.

The founder adopted a new constitution based on universal adult franchise. The old
organization went into oblivion. The new Samaj is active even today, with its branches all
over the country.

1. It has followed the path of constitutionalism and radical reformism.

2. Its programmes include the removal of the purdah system, introduction of widow
remarriage, abolition of polygamy and early marriage and provision of higher
education for women.
3. It has attacked rigidities based on caste system. Inter-caste commensal relations,
such as eating and drinking water, have been encouraged by the Samaj.
4. Emphasis on monotheism continues to be its primary ideal.

THE PRARTHANA SAMAJ

The Prarthana Samaj, an offshoot of the Brahmo Samaj, came into existence in1867 under
the leadership of Justice Mahadeo Govinda Ranade. Keshub was a source of inspiration for
this organization.

1. The followers of the Prarthana Samaj never looked upon themselves as adherents of
a new religion or of a new sect, outside and alongside the general Hindu body, but
saw it simply as a movement within it. They were staunch theists in the Vaishnavite
tradition of Maharashtra. The saints, like Namdeo, Tukaram and Ramdas influenced
them to a large extent.
2. They devoted themselves to social reforms such as inter-caste dining and marriages,
remarriage of widows, and improvement of the lot of women and depressed classes.
3. The Samaj founded the following organization and institutions: an asylum and
orphanage at Pandharpur; night schools; a widow home; and a depressed classes
mission. Justice Ranade devoted his life to the Prarthana Samaj. He contributed to
the formation of the Widow Marriage Association in 1861, and the Deccan
Education Society in 1884-85. Ranade conveyed two things:
4. The whole man was his concern; and
5. There was continuity even in face of radical transformation.
6. He advocated that these two should become a part of the reformist philosophy.

THE ARYA SAMAJ

The Arya Samaj was founded in 1875 by Swami Dayananda Saraswati. He was a Sanskrit
scholar with no English education. He gave the call “Go back to the Vedas”. He had no
regard for the Puranas. Swami received education on Vedanta. His views were similar to
that of Ram Mohan Roy. Disbelief in polytheism and image worship, opposition to caste-
based restriction, child marriage, and opposition to the prohibition of sea voyages, and
advocating female education and widow remarriage were important programmes
common to the followers of Brahmo Samaj and Arya Samaj. Like other reforms of his
times, Swami Dayananda Saraswati regarded the Vedas as eternal and infallible. His
monumental work – Satyartha Prakash is an interpretation of the Vedas. Swami
considered the epics – the Ramayana and the Mahabharata -as literary treasures.

1. Swami launched the Shuddhi (purification) movement, conversion of non-Hindu to

Hinduism. This was begun to realize the ideal of unifying India notionally, socially
and religiously.
2. Direct contact with the masses had immense in the Punjab and the United
Provinces.
3. He advocated that Vedas had all the truth. Every modern thing could be found in
them.
4. Swami strongly attacked the hereditary basis of the caste system, idolatry and the
belief in the superiority of Brahmanas over caste groups.
5. He rejected unsociability and pleaded that the study of the Vedas be made open to
all. The work of the Swami after his death was carried forward by Lala Hansraj,
Pandit Guru Dutt, Lala Lajpat Raj and Sawami Sradhananda.
6. The Samaj, to prevent child marriage, fixed the minimum marriageable age at 25
years for boys and 16 for girls.
7. Inter-caste marriage and widow remarriage were encouraged. Even today, Arya
Samaj Mandirs (temples) performs such acts with sincerity and promptness.
8. Equal status for women was their demand both in letter and spirit
9. The Samaj also helped the people in crises like floods, famines and earthquakes.
10. The Samaj opened orphanages and widow homes at various religious places.
11. The Samaj has also attempted to give a new direction to education. The revival of
the ‘Gurukula’ pattern, an ancient system of Hindu education, has been its goal.
However, at the higher level, the value of English education was recognized. Today,
the Arya Samaj has a widespread network of Dayananda Anglo-Vedic schools and
colleges throughout India.

THE RAMAKRISHNA MISSION

The Ramakrishna Mission is an embodiment of the synthesis of ancient India and modern
western cultures. Ramakrishna Paramahansa was the founder of this socio-religious
movement.

1. He had faith in all religions and performed religious and performed exercises in
accordance with Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. All the different religious views
are different ways leading to the same goals – was the message of Ramakrishna.
2. God is both one and many. He has form and is also without it. This message is a
great universal spirit as well as a constellation of symbols.
3. Thus, catholicity was the essence of the Mission s founder. He led a life of a secluded
saint with broad catholicity, mysticism and spirituality.

Formally, the Mission was founded in May 1897 by Paramahansa disciple, Narendranath
Dutta, who was later on known as Swami Vivekananda. Vivekananda was a graduate of
Calcutta University. Two objectives of the Mission are :

1. To bring into existence a band of monks dedicated to a life of renunciation and

practical spirituality, from among whom teachers and workers would be sent out to
spread the universal message of Vedanta as illustrated in the life of Ramakrishna;
 2. In conjunction with lay disciples, to carry on preaching, philanthropic and charitable
works, looking upon all men, women and children, irrespective of caste, creed or
colour, as veritable manifestations of the Divine.

Paramahansa himself founded the Ramakrishna Math with his young monastic as a
nucleus to fulfil the first objective. The second objective was taken up by Swami
Vivekananda after Ramakrishna’s death. Vivekananda carried the message of Ramakrishna
all over India. He was an eloquent speaker with a charming personality. Vivekananda’s
followers included people of all strata including prices and priests. In 1893, he attended
the famous “Parliament of Religions” at Chicago. He delivered lectures on Hindu
philosophy as enunciated by Ramakrishna Paramahansa at various places in the UK and
the USA.

The headquarters of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission are at Belur, near Kolkata. The
Math is a religious trust dedicated to the nursing of the inner spiritual life of the members
of the monastery. The Mission is a charitable society dedicated to the expression of inner
spiritual life in outward collective action in the service of men.

1. The Mission stands for religious and social reforms. The Vedantic doctrine is its
ideal.
2. Its emphasis is on the development of the highest spirituality inherent in man.
3. Certain spiritual experiences of Ramakrishna, the teachings of the Upanishads and
the Gita, and the examples of the Buddha and Jesus are the basis of Vivekananda
message to the world about human values.
4. He wanted to make the Vedanta practical. His mission was to bridge the gulf
between paramartha (service) and vyavahara (behaviour), and between spirituality
and day-to-day life.
5. He advocated the doctrine of service – the service of all beings. The service of jiva
(living objects) is the worship of Siva. Life itself is religion. By service, the Divine
exists within man.
6. Vivekananda was for using technology and modern sciences in the service of
mankind.

The Mission has been in existence for more than a century. It has now developed into a
worldwide organization. The Mission is a deeply religious body; but it is not a
proselytizing body. It is not a sect of Hinduism. In fact, this one of the strong reasons for
the success of the Mission. The Mission has given top priority to the idea of social service,
both in terms of philanthropic work and upliftment of religious and spiritual life. It has
been successful in propagating the universal principle of Vedanta and giving a true picture
of India to the western world. It believes that the philosophy of Vedanta will make a
Christian a better Christian and a Hindu a better Hindu.

The Mission has opened many schools and dispensaries, and helped the victims of natural
calamities. Millions of men and women suffering from dumbness have been helped by the
Mission.The Mission has published books on the Vedanta, and it also publishes about ten
journals and magazines in English and other Indian languages.

THE SERVANTS OF INDIAN SOCIETY

Like other nineteenth century organizations for socio-religious reforms, the Servants of
Indian Society undertook various welfare programmes in the early twentieth century.
Gopal Krishna Gokhale, a liberal leader of the Indian National Congress, founded the
Society in 1905.

1. The aim of the Society was to train “national missionaries for the service of
India, and to promote, by all constitutional means, the true interests of the
Indian people”.
2. Its members were called upon “to devote their lives to the cause of the country
in a religious spirit”.
3. It was a society dedicated to the service of the country. Its aim was to prepare a
cadre of selfless workers.

Srinivas Shastri succeeded Gokhale as its president, after Gokhale’s death in 1915. Some of
the members devoted themselves to selfless politics, others took up welfare activities. In
1911, Narayan Malhar Joshi, a follower of Gokhale, founded the Social Service League in
Bombay.

1. Its aim was “to secure for the masses of the people better and reasonable
conditions of life and work”.
2. In 1926, they ran 17 night nurseries. They organized over libraries and reading
rooms and 2 days nurseries. They organized over a hundred cooperative societies.
3. Other activities included Police Court, Agent’s work, legal advice and aid to the poor
and illiterate, excursions for slum-dwellers, facilities for gymnasia and theatrical
performances, sanitary work, medical relief and Boys’ Clubs and Scout Corps. Joshi
also founded the All-India Trade Union Congress in 1920.

REFORM MOVEMENTS AMONG MUSLIMS, SIKHS AND PARSIS

The Muslims had Four Revivalist Movements :

1. The Ahmadiya movement; the Aligarh movement; Sir Mohammad Iqbal’s

movement; and Sheikh Abdul Halim Sharar’s movement.
2. These movements stressed upon universal brotherhood, liberal education and
liberal interpretation of the Quran.
3. Parsis and Sikhs also launched several socio-religious reforms in their respective
communities.
4. Parsis vowed to discard orthodoxy, particularly in regard to education of women,
marriage and social position of women.
5. The Sikhs did a lot of work to reform the management of the Gurudwaras. There
was practically a revolt against the Mahants of these shrines. The Khalsa College at
Amritsar was established by the end of the nineteenth century.

THE SWADESHI MOVEMENT

The Swadeshi movement aimed at the indigenization by discarding use of foreign goods
and inculcation of nationalist spirit among the people of India. Ganesh Vasudev Joshi
(Lokahitawadi), a reformer in Maharashtra, an ardent advocate of the Swadeshi
movement, listed the following points for reforming society:

1. All should devoutly worship God;

2. All ceremonies, except those connected with initiation, marriage and death should
be abolished. Ceremonials and prayers should be performed in one’s own language;
 3. Every person should have liberty to act, speak and write according to what he
thinks;
4. Men and women should have equal rights in social and religious functions;
5. Morality is higher than performance of ritual;
6. No person is to be treated with contempt Pride of caste is unbecoming. All men are
to be treated with charity. Do good to all;
7. Love of the motherland and good of the country should always be borne in mind;
8. The rights of the people are higher than those of the governments,
9. The rules laid down by the government and rules suggested by reason should be
observed;
10. Everybody should strive for the growth of learning; and
11. Truth should be the abiding principle of conduct.

These canons of conduct show that India was trying to rejuvenate its socio-cultural fabric
and make a dignified place for itself in the changed circumstances. It had become
necessary to change, to discard and to adopt some elements simultaneously. Striving for
synthesis had become a necessity. Condemnation of ritual paraphernalia, caste system,
rules of marriage, and of differences between the sexes had become absolutely necessary.

THE SATYASHODHAK SAMAJ MOVEMENT

Jyotiba Phule organized a powerful movement against the Brahmanas in Maharashtra. He
started a school for girls, and one for girls, and one for the untouchables’,and also a home
for widows. He challenged the supremacy of the Brahmanas. His two writings –
Saravajanik Satyadharma Pustak and Gulamgiri became sources of inspiration for the
common masses.

1. He founded the Satyashodhak Samaj (Truth Seekers’ Society) to carry out his
crusade against the Brahmana hegemony.
2. The Satyashodhak Samaj, besides being anti- Brahmanic, had a programme of
positive action for women liberation, propagating education, and for economic
betterment.
3. Mahatma Phule used the symbol of Rajah Bali as opposed to the Brahmana’s symbol
of Rama.
4. The middle castes, the Kunbis, Malis and Dhangars, developed a sense of identity as
a class against Brahmanas, who are thought of as exploiters.
5. In the 1990s, the Maharaja of Kolhapur encouraged the non-Brahmana movement.
The movement spread to the southern states in the first decade of twentieth
century. Kannnas, Reddis and Vellalas, the powerful intermediate castes, joined
hands against the Brahmanas. Muslims also joined them.

THE SNDP MOVEMENT

A number of backward class movements were launched in the pre-independence period.
The backward classes organized themselves against the Brahmanas in particular as they
thought that most of the socio-economic advantages were cornered by them depriving the
agricultural intermediate castes and communities. These were similar to Jotiba Phule’s
Satyashodhak Samaj movement, with the similar aim of ending oppression by the
Brahmanas. The Brahmanas were the first to exploit modern educational and employment
opportunities. The upper non-Brahmana castes failed to get access to these opportunities.
The Sri Narayan Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) movement, among the Ezhavas of Kerala, is an
example of conflict between the depressed classes and the upper non-Brahmana castes.
The Ezhavas were a caste of toddy-tappers in Kerala. They were like the Nadars of Tamil
Nadu and the Idigas of Karnataka. The Ezhavas were the largest single caste group
constituting 26 per cent of the total population of Kerala. In a developing country like
India, movements led by the backward classes speak of their low status, disadvantages,
discriminations and deprivations which they suffered for a long time at the hands of the
ruling classes and communities.

The SNDP movement is an example of a ‘regional’ movement. It pertains to the Ezhavas of

Kerala who were untouchables. The ideology of the movement was formulated by Sri
Narayan Guru Swamy. He formed a programme of action known as the ‘SNDP Yogam’.

1. The Yogam took up several issues, including the right of admission to public schools,
recruitment to government employment, entry into temple, on roads and political
representation.
2. Most of these objectives were realized that The movement, as a whole, brought
about transformative structural changes which included upward social mobility,
shift in the traditional distribution of power, and a federation of ‘backward castes’
into a large conglomeration.
3. Caste reforms and mobility movement were launched in almost all parts of India
during the British period.
4. These movements had two objectives: to protest against the hegemony of
Brahmanas, in particular and of other upper castes, in general; and to elevate the
position of the backward castes in the caste hierarchy by imitating lifestyles of the
upper castes, including having higher education and prestigious jobs.
5. These movements invariably created ‘ethnic’ awareness and politicization among
various caste groups.

FAR REACHING IMPACT OF THESE MOVEMENTS

The greatest impact of the nineteenth century socio-religious reform movements was:

1. The creation of national awakening among the masses;

2. The revival of Hinduism as a tolerant rational religion to restore its lost prestige in
the wake of Islam in the past and Christianity in the nineteenth century;
3. An onslaught on the indignities committed on women, untouchables and other
oppressed and depressed sections of Indian society;
4. The creation of the feelings of sacrifice, service and rationalism;
5. An attack on the hereditary character and rigidities of the caste system; and finally
6. A sense of equality, indigenization and co-existence of cultures and religions.

It has been noted earlier that atrocities on women through purdah, child marriage,
hypergamy, dowry and sex-based inequality in regard to division of work, education,
occupation, freedom, etc., moved all the reformists. Not only were legislations against
these ills passed, but concrete social actions were also taken to ameliorate the plight of
women. It was an era of new enlightenment, of indigenization with an open mind,
welfarism, liberalism and equalitarianism. This sort of awakening contributed a lot to
India’s freedom struggle.

These socio-religious movements were for introducing humanistic social reforms by

stopping the moral and material decadence of India. Even radical westernization was
pleaded for by Ram Mohan Roy as a means to rejuvenate the decaying Indian culture and
society. These movements did not have an all-India character. They were localized in
Bengal Maharashtra, Punjab, etc. Their impact was generally limited to the educated,
upper middle and middle classes. Assimilation of the values of rationalism, universal
brotherhood, and freedom of man and equality of sexes was not easy with the Indian
tradition and culture. These movements have been called “denationalized and hyper-
westernized” by some critics. It is certainly undeniable that these movements made
tremendous and everlasting impact in terms of socio-cultural awakening against social
evils.

POSITIVE ASPECT OF REFORM MOVEMENTS AND SOCIAL REFORM

The orthodox sections of society could not accept the scientific ideological onslaught of the
socio religious rebels. As a result of this, the reformers were subjected to abuse,
persecution, issuing of fatwa and even assassination attempts by the reactionaries.

1. However, in spite of opposition, these movements contributed towards liberation of

the individual from the conformity bom out of fear and from uncritical submission
to exploitation by the priests. The translation of religious texts into vernacular
languages, emphasis on individual’s right to interpret the scriptures and
simplification of rituals made worship a more personal experience. The movements
emphasised the human intellect’s capacity to think and reason.
2. By weeding out corrupt elements, religious beliefs and practices, the reformers
enabled their followers to meet the official taunt that their religions and society
were decadent and inferior. It gave the rising middle classes the much needed
cultural roots to cling to, and served the purpose of reducing the sense of
humiliation which the conquest by a foreign power had produced.
3. A realization of the special needs of modern times, especially in terms of scientific
knowledge, and thus promoting a modern, this-worldly, secular and rational
outlook was major contribution of these reform movements.
4. Socially, this attitude reflected in a basic change in the notions of “pollution and
purity’. Although traditional values and customs were a prominent target of attack
from the reformers, yet the reformers aimed at modernization rather than outright
westernizing based on blind imitation of alien western cultural values. In fact, the
reform movements sought to create a favourable social climate for modernization.
To that extent these movements ended India’s cultural and intellectual isolation
from the rest of the world. The reformers argued that modern ideas and culture
could be best imbibed by integrating them into Indian cultural streams.
5. The underlying concern of these reformist efforts was revival of the native cultural
personality which had got distorted by colonial domination. This cultural ideological
struggle was to prove to be an important instrument of evolution of national
consciousness and a part of Indian national resolve to resist colonial cultural and
ideological hegemony.
6. However, not all these progressive, nationalist tendencies were able to outgrow the
sectarian and obscurantist outlook. This was possibly due to divergent duality of
cultural and political struggles resulting in cultural backwardness despite political
advancement.

NEGATIVE ASPECT OF REFORM MOVEMENTS AND SOCIAL REFORM

1. One of the major limitations of these religious reform movements was that they had
a narrow social base, namely the educated and urban middle classes, while the
needs of vast masses of peasantry and the urban poor were ignored.
2. The tendency of reformers to the greatness of the past and to rely on scriptural
authority encouraged mysticism in new garbs and fostered pseudo-scientific
thinking while exercising a check on full acceptance of the need for a modern
scientific outlook. But, above all these tendencies contributed at least to some
extent, in compartmentalizing Hindus, Muslims,Sikhs and Parsis, as also alienating
high caste Hindus from low caste Hindus.
3. An overemphasis on religious and philosophical aspects of the cultural heritage got
somewhat magnified by an insufficient emphasis on other aspects of culture – art,
architecture, literature, music, science and technology.
4. To make matters worse, the Hindu reformers confined their praise of the Indian
past to its ancient period and looked upon the medieval period of Indian history
essentially as an era of decadence. This tended to create a notion of two separate
peoples, on the one hand on the other; an uncritical praise of the past was not
acceptable to the low caste sections of society which had suffered under religiously
sanctioned exploitation precisely during the ancient period
5. Moreover, the past itself tended to be placed into compartments on a partisan basis.
Many in the Muslim middle classes went to the extent of turning to the history of
West Asia for their traditions and moments of pride.
6. The process of evolution of a composite culture which was evident throughout
Indian history showed signs of being arrested with the rise of another form of
consciousness -communal consciousness – along with national consciousness
among the middle classes.
7. Many other factors were certainly responsible for the birth of communalism in
modern times, but undoubtedly the nature of religious reform movements also
contributed to it.
 Rural and Agrarian Social Structure

The Idea of Indian Village and Village Studies

SOCIAL STRUCTURE
Human world is composed of individuals. Individuals interact with one another for the
fulfillment of their needs. In this process, they occupy certain statues and roles in social life
with accompanying rights and obligations. Their social behaviour is patterned and gets
associated with certain norms and values which provide them guidance in social interaction.
There emerge various social units, such as, groups, community, associations and institutions
in society as product of social intercourse in human life.

In this scenario, social structure is conceived as the pattern of inter-related statuses and
roles found in a society, constituting a relatively stable set of social relations. It is the
organized pattern of the inter-related rights and obligations of persons and groups in a
system of interaction.

RURAL SOCIAL STRUCTURE IN INDIA

India is a country of ancient civilization that goes back to the Indus Valley Civilization which
flourished during the third millennium B.C. Since then except for a brief interlude during the
Rig-Vedic period when the urban centres were overrun, rural and urban centres have co-
existed in India.

1. Rural and urban centres share some common facets of life. They show
interdependence especially in the spheres of economy, urban-ward migration,
townsmen or city dwellers’ dependence on villages for various products (e.g., food-
grains, milk, vegetables and raw materials for industry) and increasing dependence of
villagers on towns for manufactured goods and market Despite this interdependence
between the two there are certain distinctive features which separate them from each
other in terms of their size, demographic composition, cultural moorings and style of
life, economy, employment and social relations. We find that the size of village
population is small and density of population is low in comparison with towns and cities.
India is rightly called a country of villages. Moreover, about 65 per cent of the total
population lives in villages. Further, rural life is characterized by direct relationship of
people to nature i.e. land, animal and plant life. Agriculture is their main occupation. For
example, in India agriculture provides livelihood to about 60 per cent of the labour
force.
2. Long enduring rural social institutions in India are Family, Kinship, Caste and
Village. They have millennia old historical roots and structures. They encompass the
entire field of life -social, economic, political and cultural – of the rural people. The
complexity of social norms and values, statuses and roles, rights and obligations is
reflected in them. VILLAGE occupies an important place in the social and cultural
landscape of con temporary India. Notwithstanding India’s significant industrialization
over the last five or six decades, and a considerable increase in its urban population, a
large majority of Indians continue to live in its more than five lakh villages and remain
dependent on agriculture, directly or indirectly.
3. Apart from it being an important demographic and structural reality characterizing
contemporary India, village has also been an important ideological category, a
category through which India has often been imagined and imaged in modern
 times. The village has been seen as the ultimate signifier of the “authentic native life”, a
place where one could see, observe and “realize” India and develop an understanding of
the way local people organize their social relationships and belief systems. As Andre
Beteille writes, ‘the village was not merely a place where people lived; it had a design
which reflected the basic values of Indian civilization. Institutional patterns of the Indian
“village communities” and its cultural values where supposed to be an example of what
in the twentieth century came to be known as the “traditional society”.

Main Features of Rural Society may be summed up as :

1. Village is a community- The village satisfies all their needs in the village. They have a
sense of unity and a feeling of amiability towards each other.
2. Village is a institution- The development of villages is influenced considerably by the
life of the village. In this way village is a primary institution.
3. Religiosity- Faith in religion and universal power is found in the life of the villages.
4. The major occupation is agriculture which involves dependence on nature. Farmers
worship forces of nature. The life of the village is the joint family system.
5. Family has a strict control and administrative powers over the individual. All the
members of the family share the burden of the family occupation. In this way of
working together the villagers maintain sense of cooperation among themselves. In
the life of the villagers group feeling occupies an important place. They respect the
judgment and obey the orders of their elders and the panchayats. Society, caste and
panchayat have control over the individual.

IDEA OF INDIAN VILLAGE

The study of the Indian village began in the 18th century with intensive survey work regarding
landholdings. Intensive empirical studies of village social life became popular in the 20th
century. The studies by Munro, Metcalfe, Maine and Baden-Powell considered the Indian
village as a closed and isolated system. Sir Charles Metcalfe considered the Indian village a
monolithic, atomistic and unchanging entity. He observed: “The village communities are little
republics, having nearly everything that they want within themselves and almost
independent of any foreign relations” Further, he stated that ‘wars pass over it, regimes
come and go, but the village as a society always emerges ‘unchanged, unshaken, and self-
sufficient’.

1. Though one may find detailed references to village life in ancient and medieval times, it
was during the British colonial rule that an image of the Indian village was constructed
by the colonial administrators that was to have far reaching implications – ideological as
well as political for the way Indian society was to be imagined in the times to come.
2. Recent historical anthropological and sociological studies have, however, shown that
Indian village was hardly ever a republic. It was never self-sufficient. It has links with
the wider society. Migration, village exogamy, movement, inter-village economy and
caste links and religious pilgrimage were prevalent in the past, connecting the village
with the neighbouring villages and the wider society. Moreover, new forces of
modernization in the modern period augmented inter-village and rural-urban
interaction.
 3. But, as pointed by Mandelbaum and Orenstein, despite increasing external linkages
village is still a fundamental social unit. People living in a village have a feeling of
common identity. They have intra-village ties at familial caste and class levels in social
economic, political and cultural domains. In fact, village life is characterized by
reciprocity, cooperation, dominance and competition. Not all colonial administrators
shared Metcalfe’s assessment of the Indian village. It never became the most popular
and influential representation of India.
4. The Indian village, in the colonial discourse, was a self-sufficient community, with
communal ownership of land and was marked by a functional integration of various
occupational groups. Things as diverse as stagnation, simplicity and social harmony
were attributed to the village which was taken to be the basic unit of Indian civilization.
‘Each village was an inner world a traditional community, self-sufficient in its economy,
patriarchal in its governance, surrounded by an outer one other hostile villages and
despotic governments’.
5. In many ways, even in the nationalist discourse, the idea of village as a representative
of authentic native life was derived from the same kind of imagination. Though Gandhi
was careful enough not to glorify the decaying village of British India, he nevertheless
celebrated the so-called simplicity and authenticity of village life, an image largely
derived from colonial representations of the Indian village. The decadence of the village
was seen as a result of colonial rule and therefore village reconstruction was, along with
political independence, an important process for recovery of the lost self.
6. In the post-Independence India also Village’ has continued to be treated as the basic
unit of Indian society. Among the academic traditions, the studies of village have
perhaps been the most popular among the sociologists and social anthropologists
working on India. They carried-out a large number of studies focusing on the social and
cultural life of the village in India. Most of these studies were published during the
decades 1950s and 1960s. These Village studies” played an important role in giving
respectability to the disciplines of sociology and social in India. Generally basing their
accounts on first-hand fieldwork, carried out mostly in a single village, social
anthropologists focused on the structures of social relationships, institutional patterns,
beliefs and value systems of the rural people. The publication of these studies also
marked the beginning of a new phase in the history of Indian social sciences. They
showed, for the first time, the relevance of a fieldwork based understanding of Indian
society, or what came to be known as “field view” of the India, different from the then
dominant “book-view” of India, developed by Indologists and orientalists.

WHAT WAS THE CONTEXT OF VILLAGE STUDIES IN INDIA?

1. During 1950s and 1960s the new interest in the village social life was a direct offshoot
of the newly emerged interest in the study of the peasantry in the Western
academy. Emergence of the so-called “new states” following decolonization during the
post-war period had an important influence on research priorities in the social sciences.
The most significant feature of the newly emerged ‘third world’ countries was the
dependence of large proportions of their populations on a stagnant agrarian
sector. Thus, apart from industrialization, the main agenda for the new political
regimes was the transformation of their “backward” and stagnant agrarian economy.
Though the strategies and priorities differed, ‘modernization’ and ‘development’
became common programmes in most of the Third World countries. Understanding
the prevailing structures of agrarian relations and working out ways and means of
 transforming them were recognized as the most important priorities within
development studies. It was in this context that the concept of ‘peasantry’ found
currency in the discipline of sociology. At a time when primitive tribes were either in
the process of disappearing or had already disappeared, the “discovery” of the
peasantry provided a new lease of life to the discipline of sociology.
2. The Village Community was identified as the social foundation of the peasant economy
in Asia. It is quite easy to see this connection between the Redfieklian notion of ‘peasant
studies’ and the Indian ‘village studies’. The single most poplar concept used by the
sociologists studying the Indian village was Robert Redfield’s notion of ‘little
community’. Among the first works on the subject, Village India: Studies in the Little
Community edited by M. Marriot was brought out under the direct supervision of
Redfiekt.
3. In India agriculture and village are integrated and almost the two sides of same coin.
M.N. Srinivas who edited a book of Indian village studies found that even in mountain
villages, the major occupation was agriculture. This was the case with tribal
communities who are supposed to follow non-agricultural activities like hunting. and
gathering. Therefore, It is appropriate to say village India as agrarian India.
4. The idea of Indian village community – villages have been given different names
including a term used by many as Rurality. Probably in one of the latest estimations of
village in India, Deepankar Gupta said, most of academics are is time warp, still living in
old times villages have changed They should be called ‘Rurban’. He says village India is
integrated with other structures including urban areas. Rural population is not
dependent but are reciprocally attached to urban economics.
5. Another appraisal of village in India is a revisit by Aurinder Jodhka to two Haryana
villages near Panipat is 2011 which he studied in 1988-89 earlier for his Phd He says,
village India despite its regional variations and the variation on the development ladder
today are more integrated to the urban economies and liberalized economy of India.
Everything is not modern. Castes remain important and probably have become more
important. In occupational terms, there is a caste relationship. One thing has happened
that Dalits are not confined to village. They work as sanitation workers in the city but
they do not want to do the same work in villages on other hand there is more
interdependent relationship in villages agriculture where attached labourer are working
in cordial terms. The conceptions that attached labour is a tragic thing and refers to
deprived conditions of agriculture labour is wrong. Jodhka does not share the rosy
picture presented by Deepankar Gupta of village India.
6. Having found a relevant subject matter in the village, social anthropologists initiated
field studies in the early 1950s. During October 1951 and May 1954 the Economic and
Political Weekly published a number of short essays providing brief accounts of
individual villages that were being studied by different anthropologists. These essays
were later put together by M.N. Srinivas in the form of a book with the title ‘India’s
Villages’. Interestingly, the first volume of ‘Rural Profiles’ by D.N. Majumdar also
appeared in 1955. S.C. Dube also published his full length study of a village near
Hyderabad, ‘Indian Village’ in the same year.

IMPORTANCE OF VILLAGE STUDIES IN INDIA

1. To prepare a profile of village India, provide authentic and scientific account of

traditional social order and there transformation: In the emerging intellectual and
political environment during the postwar period, sociologists saw themselves playing an
 important role in providing authentic and scientific account of the “traditional social
order”, the transformation of which had become IMPORTANT concern. Many of the
village monographs emerged directly from the projects carried-out by sociologists for
development agencies.
2. Evaluation of rural reconstruction programme : Lewis was appointed by the Ford
Foundation in India to work with the Programme Evaluation Organization of the
Planning Commission to help in developing a scheme for the objective evaluation of the
rural reconstruction porogramme. According to Lewis, who studied a village near Delhi,
the main concern of there study were what the villagers felt about need of housing,
education, health, land consolidation programme and newly created Panchayats.
3. To assist economists in planning process: Majumdar has stated the importance of village
studies in the following words, “sociologists, unlike his economist counterpart, saw the
village ‘in the context of the cultural life lived by the people’ and the way ‘rural life was
inter-locked and interdependent’ which ‘baffled social engineers as it could not be
geared to landed economy. It was here that the economists needed the assistance of
sociologists and anthropologists”
4. According to M.N. Srinivas, the sociologists viewed their perspective as being “superior”
because they alone studied village community as a whole. Their knowledge and
approach provided an indispensable background for the proper interpretation of data
on any single aspect of rural life. Their approach provided a much-needed corrective to
the partial approach of the economist, political scientist and social worker.
5. For qualitative analysis of economic growth : According to Epstein while economists
used quantitative techniques and their method was “more scientific”; the sociological
approach had its own advantages. Sociological studies provided qualitative analysis. The
method of sociology required that its practitioners selected a small universe which
could be studied intensively for a long period of time to analyze its intricate system of
social reactions’.
6. Study of historical continuity and stability of village : Hoebel has stated that the village
and its hamlets represented “India in microcosm”. For Srinivas, they ‘were invaluable
observation-centres where sociologist could study in detail social processes and
problems to be found occurring in great parts of India’. Dasgupta has stated that
‘Villages were supposedly close to people, their life, livelihood and culture’ and they
were ‘a focal point of reference for individual prestige and identification’. As ‘an
important administrative and social unit, the village profoundly influenced the
behaviour pattern of its inhabitants’. Villages were supposed to have been around for
‘hundreds of years’, having ‘survived years of wars, making and breaking up of empires,
famines, floods and other natural disasters’. This perceived ‘historical continuity and
stability of villages’ strengthened the case for village studies.

However not all sociologists were involved with development programmes. Most of them saw
there work in professional terms. Srinivas argued that ‘the anthropologist has intimate and
first hand knowledge of one or two societies and he can place his understanding at the
disposal of the planner. He may in some cases even be able to anticipate the kind of reception
a particular administrative measure may have. But he cannot lay down policy because it is a
result of certain decisions about right and wrong’. Thus maintaining a “safe” distance from the
political agencies was seen to be necessary because, unlike economics, social anthropology did
not have a theoretical grounding that could help them become applied sciences.
DEFINING FEATURES OF INDIAN VILLAGE

1. The Indian village had a considerable degree of diversity. This diversity was both internal
as well as external. The village was internally differentiated in diverse groupings and had
a complex structure of social relationships and institutional arrangements. There were
also different kinds of villages in different parts of the country. Even within a particular
region of the country, not all villages were alike.
2. The stereotypical image of the Indian village as a self-sufficient community was
contested by anthropological studies. Beteille, for example, argued ‘at least as far back
in time as living memory went, there was no reason to believe that the village was fully
self-sufficient in the economic sphere. Similarly Srinivas too contested the colonial
notion of the Indian village being a completely self-sufficient republic. The village, he
argued, ‘was always a part of a wider entity.
3. The fact that the village interacted with the outside world did not mean it did not have a
design of its own or could not be studied as a representative unit of Indian social life.
While villages had horizontal ties, it was the vertical ties within the village that governed
much of the life of an average person in the village.
4. Village provided an important source of identity to its residents. Different scholars
placed different emphasis on how significant the village identity was when compared to
other sources of identification, such as those of caste, class or locality.
5. Srinivas argued that individuals in his village had a sense of identification with their
village and an insult to oneself, one’s wife, or one’s family.
6. Dube argued that though Indian villages varied greatly in their internal structure
organization, in their ethos and world-view, and in their life-ways and thought-ways, on
account of variety of factors, village communities all over the Indian sub-continent had a
number of common features. The village settlement, as a unit of social organization,
represented a kind of solidarity which was different from that of the kin, the caste and
the class. Each village was a distinct entity, had some individual mores and usages, and
possessed a corporate unity. Different castes and communities inhabiting the village
were integrated in its economic, social, and ritual pattern by ties of mutual and
reciprocal obligations sanctioned and sustained by generally accepted conventions.
Notwithstanding the existence of groups and factions inside the settlement, people of
the village could and did face the outside world as an organized compact whole.
7. Jonathan parry who studied Bhillai industrial complex said today villages have greater
interaction and closer relationship with cities and nearby urban areas. Jodhka tells the
same thing about his village of Haryana where a power plant was established One
important thing in both the studies was that village people now have an unfavourable
idea of the village.
8. Village communities still has a social structural feature, in that the daughter of one
village feel freer than daughter in laws. There is still a tendency to call each other by
fictitious kin terms. Villages within themselves have become very competitive. The
earlier dominance of one or two castes is not existing now. Caste is important and most
competitions and co-operations are on the basis of caste. Classes have also emerged as
important divisions, they co-operate and co-exist in caste and class terms.
9. Though the later studies were much more elaborate and contained long descriptions of
different forms of social inequalities and differences in the rural society, many of them
continued to use the framework of reciprocity particularly while conceptualizing ‘unity’
of the village the way Srinivas and Dube or earlier Wiser did Some of the
anthropologists explicitly contested the unity thesis while others qualified their
 arguments by recognizing the conflicts within the village and the ties that villagers had
with the outside world For instance, Paul Hilbert in his study of a south Indian village,
although arguing that the caste system provided a source of stability to the village, also
underlined the fact that ‘deep seated cleavages underlie the apparent unity of the
village and fragmented it into numerous social groups’. Similarly, Beteille had argued
that his study of village ‘Sripuram as a whole constituted a unit in a physical sense and
to a much lesser extent, in the social sense’.
10. Manish Thakur in his debate said that the development discourse has changed the view
of village because they wanted attract funds for their village. Surinder Jodha says that
the different welfare schemes like benefits for the below poverty families have
produced a kind of new social construction attempts among the village.

Note : The Indian Context of Rural Sociology

1. In India the importance of rural sociology gained recognition after independence. The
agrarian context occupies special status both in the social scientific literature on India
and in the literature on agrarian societies in general . However unlike studies on caste,
kinship, village community, gender, study of agrarian relations did not occupy a central
position in Indian sociology. The first systematic study of rural India was done by D.N
Majumdar followed by N.K Bose, S.C Dubey, M.N Shrinivas. However it was with the
publication of Andre ‘Be’teille’s Studies in Agrarian Social Structure in 1974 that agrarian
sociology gained professional respectability within the two disciplines.
2. Peasant studies in a way arrived in India with village studies. The collection of essays,
Village India, edited by Marriot with its emphasis on little communities and great
communities was brought out under the direct supervision of Robert Redfield. By
defining little communities not in relation to land but through other social institutions
such as kinship, religion and the social organization of caste there was a shift away from
looking at the rural population in relation to agriculture and land Caste hierarchy came
to be defined in terms of ritual or social interaction over institutions of commensality
and marriage.
3. According to Nelson up to the comparatively recent times the story of man is largely the
story of rural man. So rural society is the basic foundation of human life, the keystone of
the developmental process and the basic unit of social structure. Villages have been in
existence since time immemorial unlike cities which are of more recent origin. In the
Indian context rural sociology is of greater significance of the following reasons.
4. According to S.C Dubey from time immemorial village has been a basic and important
unit in the organization of Indian social life. Unique nature of transformation of Indian
society where elements of traditional and modern cultures have been juxtaposed For
rural development and solution of rural problems according to A.R Desai this systematic
study of rural organization of its structure; function and evolution has not only become
necessary but also urgent after the advent of independence. Growing influence of
industrialization and urbanization. Village as the basic unit of study. Scientific study of
village community is a prerequisite for democratic decentralization.
5. In modern India, the need of rural sociology is very urgent and it is progressive social
science gaining importance.
Changes in social organization of villages due to market economy

1. Indian villages are in a state of flux. Change is coming into all the areas in villagers’ lives.
Agriculture and allied activities are the basis of village economy and they require the
active participation of all caste groups.
2. Urbanization, industrialization and democratization are breaking up the traditional
structure of Indian villages in caste, economy and political organization etc.
3. There has been an economic change in village life from the expansion and spread of the
market economy. The economic frontier has some important consequences on village
organization. It is seen in several studies that money economy has permitted some
castes to move quickly up the status ladder and forced traditional high caste to move
downwards.
4. The spread of money and new opportunities tend to reduce the role of large kinship and
place more emphasis on smaller familial units.
5. Production of cash crops have reduces the nutritive value of food and reduces the
connection between the farmer and his land. There is over exploitation of natural
resources, resource disagreement and pressure politics to secure use of resources all
that have affected social organization of a village.
6. The market economy has brought changes in other ways like opening up consumer
product markets in rural areas, service provision and other symbols of modernity that
may not require land and hence are open to more people. This changes the social
equation within the villages. The village organization is thus undergoing metamorphosis
in the wake of its exposure to a highly competitive market economy.

M.N Srinivas and S.C. Dube’s Perspective on Indian village

1. S.C Dube identified six factors that contributed towards the status differentiation in the
village community of Shamirpet -religion and caste, landownership, wealth, position in
the government service and village organization, age and distinctive personality traits.
Attempts to claim a higher ritual status was not a simple process. The group had to
negotiate it at the local power structure. Dube pointed out the manner in which the
caste panchayat of the lower or the menial castes worked as unions to secure their
employment and strengthen their bargaining power with the land owning dominant
castes.
2. To Srininvas the social world of the woman was synonymous with the household and
kinship group while the men inhabited a more heterogeneous world. In the Telangana
village Dube observed that women were secluded from the activities of the public
space. It was considered a mark of respectability in women if they walked with their
eyes downcast. The rules of patriarchy were clearly laid out. After caste gender was the
most important factor that governed the division of labor in the village. Masculine and
feminine pursuits were clearly distinguished.
3. Srinivas pointed out that the two sets of occupations were not only separated but also
seen as unequal. It was the man who exercised control over the domestic economy. He
made the annual grain payments at harvest to the members of the artisan and servicing
castes who had worked for him during the year. The dominant male view thought of
women as being incapable of understanding what went on outside the domestic wall.
CASTE, CLASS AND GENDER IN INDIAN VILLAGE
Caste

1. Caste and hierarchy have long been seen as the distinctive and defining features of the
Indian society. It was during the colonial period that caste was, for the first time,
theorized in modern sociological language. The colonial administrators also gathered
extensive ethnographic details and wrote detailed accounts of the way systems of caste
distinctions and hierarchies worked in different parts of the sub-continent Social
anthropology in the post-independence India continued with a similar approach that
saw caste as the most important and distinctive feature of Indian society. While caste
was a concrete structure that guided social relationships in the Indian village, hierarchy
was its ideology.
2. An individual in caste society lived in a hierarchical world. Not only were the people
divided into higher or lower groups, their food, their dresses, ornaments, customs and
manners were all ranked in an order of hierarchy. Anthropologist invariably invoked the
Varna system of hierarchy which divided the Hindu society into five major categories.
The first three, viz., Brahmins (the priests or men of learning), Kshatriyas (rulers and
warriors) and Vaishya (traders) were regarded as dvijas or the twice born. The fourth
category was that of Shudras, composed of numerous occupational castes that were
regarded as relatively ‘clean’ and were not classed as “untouchables”. In the fifth major
category were placed all the untouchable castes. According to Dube the Hindus all over
India, accepted this classification.
3. The legitimate occupations to be followed by people in these major categories were
defined by tradition. Within each category there were several sub-groups (jati or
castes), which could be arranged in a hierarchical order within them. According to Dube,
despite a general framework, there were considerable variations in different regions
where several socially autonomous castes, each fitting into one of the five major
divisions, were otherwise practically independent in there socio-religious sphere of life.
4. According to Majumdar, Caste divisions determined and decided all social relations.
Most scholars saw caste as a closed system where entry into a social status was a
function of heredity and individual achievement, personal quality or wealth had,
according to the strict traditional prescription, no say in determining the social status’.
However, Srinivas is of the view that, there were some who admitted that the way caste
operated at the local level was ‘radically different from that expressed in the Varna
scheme. Mutual rank was uncertain and this stemmed from the fact that mobility was
possible in caste’.
5. Dube identified six factors that contributed towards the status differentiation in the
village community of Shamirpet religion and caste; landownership; wealth; position in
government service and village organization; age; and distinctive personality traits.
Attempts to claim a higher ritual status through, what Srinivas called sanskritisation,
was not a simple process. It could not be achieved only through rituals and lifestyle
imitation. The group had to also negotiate it at the local power structure. Similarly,
stressing secular factors, Dube pointed to the manner in which the caste panchayats of
the lower or the menial castes worked as unions to secure their employment and
strengthen their bargaining power vis-a-vis the land owning dominant castes.

However, a large majority of them viewed caste system as working within the framework of
jajmani system and bound together different castes living in the village or a cluster of villages
in enduring and pervasive relationships.
Land and Class

1. As is evident from the above discussion, the social sociologists studying India during the
fifties and sixties generally worked in the framework of caste. The manner in which
social science disciplines developed in India, class and land came to be seen as the
concerns of economists. However, since sociologists advocated a prospective that
studied “small communities”in holistic terms, agriculture and the social relations of
production on land also found a place in the village monographs.
2. While some of them directly focused on economic life as one of the central research
questions, most saw it as an aspect of the caste and occupational structure of the
village. Land relations to them reflected the same patterns of hierarchy as those present
in the caste system. Srinivas has argued that ‘There was a certain amount of overlap
between the twin hierarchies of caste and land. The richer landowners generally came
from such high castes as Brahmins and Lingayats while the Harijans contributed a
substantial number of landless labourers. In contrast to the wealthier household, the
poor one was almost invisible’.
3. Some others underlined the primacy of land over all other factors in determining social
hierarchy in the village. Comparing a Brahmin dominated village with a Jat dominated
village, Oscar Lewis argued that ‘While the landowners are generally of higher caste in
Indian villages, it is their position as landowners, rather than caste membership per se,
which gives them status and power. However, despite such references to the crucial
significance of land ownership in village social life, village studies did not explore the
details of agrarian social structures in different regions of the country. Caste, family,
kinship and religion remained their primary focus.

Gender Differences

1. Most village studies looked at gender relations within the framework of the household,
and participation of women in work. These studies highlighted the division of labour
within the family and the overall dominance that men enjoyed in the public sphere.
Women, particularly among the upper castes, were confined within the four walls of the
house.
2. According to Srinivas ‘the social world of the woman was synonymous with the
household and kinship group while the men inhabited a more heterogeneous world’.
Compared to men in the Central Indian village studied by Mayer ‘women had less
chance to meet people from other parts of the village. The village well provided a
meeting place for all women of non-Harijan castes, and the opportunity for gossip. But
there was a limit to the time that busy women could stand and talk while they drew
their water and afterwards they must return home, where the occasions for talking to
people outside their own household were limited to meeting with other women of the
street’.
3. Dube in his study of the Telangana village observed that women were secluded from the
activities of the public space. ‘It was considered a mark of respectability in women if
they walked with their eyes downcast’.
Village community in today’s India
The present day villages all over India are not similar they are different in physical structure,
ecological setting, their functional importance, internal composition, economy and power
structure.

Even then some common features can be derived;

1. Economic Dimensions : In present day discourse Deepankar Gupta said, majority of the
villagers are now engaged is non- agricultural activities. Jodhka said about his Haryana
villages that peasant landowning castes and families have now started multiple
occupations, one of them manages rural land, another manages business in city and are
is employed as a doctor or engineer or professor. All sociologists do not agree to this
situation. But at least this can be easily said that today the economic situation is very
diverse which has been contributed by (1) Developmental Programme (2) Green
Revolution (3) The role of market in the age of liberalization.
2. Political Dimension : Louis Dumont said village is political community. It has power. It
want to decide its affairs on its own. This nature of political dimension has changed in
the last sixty years. Yogendra Singh said, In the fifties and sixties of the last century the
power structure in village mostly confired to land ownership and caste hierarchy. This
has changed because of democratic institutions, lower caste assertion and the
increasing competitiveness among caste group.
3. Social and Cultural Dimensions / Village still have that identity and a sense of
attachment Jan Bremen said, although competition and conflict have enormously
increased even then the sense of fictive kinship exists among villagers. In cultural
dimensions the religions festival of the village have come under dispute. On the one
hand on John Byres said, either there are more than one functions in the village or as
Balai Gopal said, the backward caste have taken the initiative in organizing them. So the
cultural metrics of village communities have changed.

Dube further mentions that the rules of patriarchy were clearly laid out. After caste, gender
was the most important factor that governed the division of labour in the village. Masculine
and feminine pursuits were clearly distinguished. Writing on similar lines about his village in
the same region Srinivas pointed out that the two sets of occupations were not only separated
but also seen as unequal. ‘It was the man who exercised control over the domestic economy.
He made the annual grain-payments at harvest to the members of the artisan and servicing
castes who had worked for him during the year. The dominant ‘male view’ thought of women
as being incapable of understanding what went on outside the domestic wall’ (Srinivas).

Men also had a near complete control over women’s sexuality. In the monogamous family,
popular among most groups in India, ‘a man could play ground but not so a woman. A man’s
sense of private property in his wife’s genital organs was as profound as in his ancestral land.
And just as, traditionally, a wife lacked any right to land she lacked an exclusive right to her
husband’s sexual prowess. Polygyny and concubinage were both evidence of her lack of such
rights. Men and women were separate and unequal.

Patriarchy and male dominance were legitimate norms. Dube has stated that ‘according to the
traditional norms of the society a husband is expected to be an authoritative figure whose will
should always dominate the domestic scene. As the head of the household he should demand
respect and obedience from his wife and children. The wife should regard him as her ‘master’
and should ‘serve him faithfully’.

CONCLUSIVE ANALYSIS

1. The studies of Indian villages carried out by social anthropologists during the 1950s and
1960s were undoubtedly an important landmark in the history of Indian social sciences.
Even though the primary focus of these studies was on the social and ritual life of the
village people; there are enough references that can be useful pointers towards an
understanding of the political and economic life in the rural society of India during the
first two decades of independent India.
2. More importantly these studies helped in contesting the dominant stereotype of the
Indian village made popular by the colonial administrators. The detailed descriptive
accounts of village life constructed after prolonged field-works carried out, in most
cases, entirely by the anthropologists themselves convincingly proved how Indian
villages were not ‘isolated communities’. Village studies showed that India’s villages had
been well integrated into the broader economy and society of the region even before
the colonial rule introduced new agrarian legislation. They also pointed to the regional
differences in the way social village life was organized in different parts of the country.
3. Social anthropological studies also offered an alternative to the dominant “book-view”
of India constructed by Indologists and orientalists from the Hindu scriptures. The “field-
view” presented in the village monographs not only contested the assumptions of
lndology but also convincingly showed with the help of empirical data as to how the
idealized model of the Varna system as theorized in Hindu scriptures did not match with
the concrete realities of village life.While caste was an important institution in the
Indian village and most studies foregrounded caste differences; over other differences,
empirical studies showed that it was not a completely closed and rigidly defined system.
Caste statuses were also not exclusively determined by one’s position in the ritual
hierarchy and that there were many grey and contestable areas within the system. It
was from the village studies that the concepts like sanskritisation, dominant caste;
segmental structures; harmonic and disharmonic systems emerged.
4. However, village studies were also constrained by a number of factors. The method of
participant observation that was the main strength of these studies also imposed
certain limitations on the fieldworkers, which eventually proved critical in shaping the
image they produced of the Indian village. Doing participant observation required a
measure of acceptability of the field worker in the village that he/she chose to study. In
a differentiated social context, it was obviously easy to approach the village through the
dominant sections. However, this choice proved to be of more than just a strategic
value. The anxiety of the anthropologist to get accepted in the village as a member of
the “community” made their accounts of the village life conservative in orientation.
5. It also limited their access to the dominant groups in the local society. They chose to
avoid asking all those questions or approaching those subordinate groups, which they
thought, could offend the dominant interests in the village. The choices made by
individual anthropologists as regard to how they were going to negotiate their own
relationship with the village significantly influenced the kind of data they could gather
about village life. Unlike the “tribal communities”, the conventional subject matter of
social anthropology, Indian villages were not only internally differentiated much more
than the tribes they also had well articulated world views. Different sections of the
village society had different perspectives on what the village was. Though most of the
 sociologists were aware of this, they did not do much to resolve this problem. On the
contrary, most of them consciously chose to identity themselves with the dominant
caste groups in the village, which apart from making their stay in the village relatively
easy, limited their access to the world-view of the upper castes and made them suspect
among the lower castes.
6. Apart form the method of participant observation and the anxiety about being accepted
in rural society that made the sociologists produce a conservative account of the rural
social relations, the received theoretical perspectives and the professional traditions
dominant within the disciplines of sociology and social anthropology during the time of
village studies also had their influences on these scholars. Sociologists during the
decades of fifties and sixties generally focused on the structures rather than changes.
This preoccupation made them look for the sources that reproduced social order in the
village and to ignore conflict and the possible sources of social transformation.

Agrarian Social Structure – Evolution of Land Tenure System, Land Reforms

Agrarian social structure refers to all those settlements and groupings of people who earn
their livelihood primarily by cultivating land and by carrying out related activities like animal
husbandry. Agricultural production or cultivation is obviously an economic activity. However,
like all other economic activities, agricultural production is carried out in a framework of
social relationships. Those involved in cultivation of land also interact with each other in
different social capacities. Some may self-cultivate the lands they own while others may
employ wage labourers or give their land to tenants and sharecroppers. Not only do they
interact with each other but they also have to regularly interact with various other
categories of people who provide them different types of services required for cultivation of
land. For example, in the old system of jajmani relations in the Indian countryside, those who
owned and cultivated land had do depend for various services required at different stages of
cultivation on the members of different caste groups.

1. All these interactions are carried out in an institutional set-up. The most important
aspects of this social or institutional framework of agriculture are the patterns of land
ownership and the nature of relationships among those who own or possess land and
those who cultivate the lands. Agricultural practices and the land ownership patterns in
a given society evolve historically over a long period of time. Those who own land
invariably command a considerable degree of power and prestige in the rural society. It
is these sets of relationships among the owners of land those who provide various
forms of services to the land-owning groups that we call the agrarian class structure.
2. Agrarian social structure in a given society evolves overa long period of time. It is
shaped historically by different socio-economic and political factors. These historical
factors vary from region to region. Thus, though one can use the concept of class to
make sense of agrarian structures in different contexts, the empirical realities vary from
region to region.
3. The traditional Indian “rural communities” and the agrarian social structures were
organized within the framework of “jajmani system”. This was a peculiarly Indian
phenomenon. The different caste groups in the traditional Indian village were divided
between jajmans (the patrons) and the kamins (the menials). The Jajmans were those
caste groups who owned and cultivated lands. The kamins provided different kinds of
services to the jajmans. While the kamins were obliged to work for the jajmans, the
 latter were required to pay a share from the farm produce to their kamins. The
relationship was based on a system of reciprocal exchange.
4. However, those who participated in this system of reciprocal exchange did not do so
on equal footings. Those who belonged to the upper castes and owned land were
obviously more powerful than those who came from the menial caste groups. The
structure of agrarian relations organized within the framework of jajmani reinforced the
inequalities of the caste system. The caste system, in turn, provided legitimacy to the
unequal land relations.
5. Over the years the jajmani system has disintegrated and rural society has experienced
profound changes in its social structure. The agrarian class structure has also changed.
These changes have been produced by a large number of factors.

EVOLUTION OF LAND TENURE SYSTEM

1. The agrarian policies of the British colonial rulers are regarded as among the most
important factors responsible for introducing changes in the agrarian structure of the
sub-continent. In order to maximize their incomes from land (which was collected
from the cultivators in the form of land revenue), they introduced some basic changes
in the property relations in the Indian countryside.
2. These agrarian policies of the colonial rulers had far reaching consequences. In Bengal
and Bihar, in parts of Chennai and United Province they conferred full ownership
rights over the erstwhile zamindars that were only tax collecting intermediaries during
the earlier regimes. The vast majority of peasants who had been actually cultivating
land became tenants of the new landlords. Similarly, they demanded revenues in the
form of a fixed amount of cash rather than as a share from what was produced on the
land. Thus, even when bad weather destroyed the crop; the peasants were forced to
pay the land revenue.
3. These changes led to serious indebtedness among the peasantry. They were forced to
mortgage their land in order to meet the revenue demands. In the long run it led to
peasants loosing their lands to moneylenders and big landowners. The big landowners
and money lenders emerged as a dominant class in the countryside while the ordinary
peasants suffered In the new agrarian class structure that emerged during the colonial
rule, peasants had no motivation to improve their lands and work hard. As a result the
agricultural production declined.

Land Revenue Systems during British Rule

1. After gaining control of Bengal in 1757, the British thought that they would retain the
administration established by the Nawabs of Bengal but would use it to collect an ever –
growing amount for themselves. However, the rapacity and corruption of the
Company’s employees, and their continual interference in the administration led to
complete disorganization, and was one of the main of the terrible famine of 1769 – 70,
in which it was estimated that one – third of the population of Bengal died.
2. From 1772 therefore, a new system was introduced and this was the system of farming
of land revenue. Under this system the right of collection of land revenue was given on
a contract basis. The contractor who offered to pay the highest amount from a certain
district or sub-division was given full powers for a certain number of years. Obviously,
such contractors (they were called revenue farmers in those days), would try and extort
as much as possible during the period that they held the contract; it would not matter
 to them if the people were ruined and the production in the later years declined. After
all they would have made their profit Extortion and oppressions were the obvious
results of such a system. Furthermore, many of the contractors had offered to pay very
large amounts, and later found that they could not collect so much, even with great
oppression. Finally, the system also led to corruption. As with many government
contracts even today, profitable contracts on very easy terms were given to the friends
and favourites and benamidars of men in power, leading to loss to the government.

The Permanent Settlement in Bengal

1. In 1786 Lord Cornwallis was sent out to India with orders to clean up and reorganize the
administration. Cornwallis realized that the existing system was impoverishing the
country- its agriculture was in decline. Furthermore, it was failing to produce the large
and regular surplus that the Company hoped for. And it was also becoming difficult for
the Company to get the large quantities of Indian goods that it planned to export to
Europe, because, as Cornwallis observed the production of silk, cotton, etc. all
depended on agriculture. When agriculture was decaying, handicrafts could hardly be
prosperous. And both the London authorities and Cornwallis were agreed that much of
the corruption and oppression originated in the fact that the taxation had the character
of an uncertain, arbitrary imposition.
2. It was decided therefore, that the land-tax would now be permanently fixed: the
government would promise never to increase it in future. Several effects were expected
from this measure. It would reduce the scope for corruption that existed when officials
could alter the assessment at will. Furthermore, now that the state would not demand
anything extra if the production increased thus it was hoped that landholders would
invest money in improving the land as the whole of the benefit would come to them.
Production and trade would increase, and the government would also get its taxes
regularly. Finally, Cornwallis believed that even if the land tax was fixed government
could always levy taxes on trade and commerce in order to raise more money if it was
needed. In any case, the land revenue was now fixed at a very high level – an absolute
maximum – of Rs. 2 Crore and 65 lakhs.

Settlement with Zamindars

1. The Nawabs of Bengal had collected taxes from the Zamindars. These Zamindars were
usually in control of large areas: sometimes entire districts. They had their own armed
forces, and were termed Rajas. But there were also Zamindars who held smaller areas,
and either paid directly to the State, or paid through some big Zamindar. The actual
cultivation was carried on by peasants who paid the Zamindars at customary rates fixed
in every sub- division (or Pargana). Oppressive Zamindars often added extra charges
called Abwabs on top of the regular land revenue rates.
2. By 1790 British rule had greatly confused this picture. Some Zamindars were retained –
others were replaced by contractors or officials. The old customary rates were ignored
and every abuse permitted if it led to an increase in the revenues. By the time
Cornwallis arrived on the scene, the situation was one of the complete confusion. The
new Governor – General belonged to the landed aristocracy of Britain and was in favour
of a settlement that gave the right of ownership to zamindars.
3. To understand this you must bear in mind that there must have been about four or five
million cultivating families in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa at that time. Collecting from them
 would have involved the preparation of detailed records of all their holdings, and the
calculation of a tax on this basis. This would take several years and a large staff to
execute. In addition it would give great opportunities for corruption. It was obviously
much simpler to collect the revenue from a small number of big Zamindars – and this
was the arrangement made under the Permanent Settlement that was introduced in
Bengal and Bihar in 1793. Every bit of agricultural land in these provinces therefore
became part of some Zamindari. The Zamindar had to pay the tax fixed upon it if he did
so then he was the proprietor, the owner of his Zamindari. He could sell mortgage or
transfer it The land would be inherited by heirs in due course. If however, the Zamindar
failed to pay the tax due, then the Government would take the Zamindari and sell it by
auction, and all the rights would vest in the new owner.
4. Ram Krishna Mukherjee said that this was no less a social revolution. It changed the
whole structure. There were many new people who became land owners. Land was
made into commercial commodity. This commercialization did not help either Indian
agriculture or peasant. Most landlords were traders and merchants who did not have
any interest in development of agriculture. Even then commercialization changed the
social structure of Bengal and other areas, where this system was implemented.
5. Zamindari system changed many things but it had negative impacts. Banerjee and Iyer
said long after independence that these areas remained backward in agricultural terms.
They were lagging behind compared to other areas in all terms. Zamindari system was
tyrannical to the peasant It has less production and it did not in prove agriculture.

The Position of the Cultivators

1. The actual cultivation of the land was, of course, carried on by the lakhs of peasants
who were now reduced to the status of tenants of the Zamindars Cornwallis had also
decreed that the Zamindars should issue written agreements (called pattas) to each
cultivator, and these should specify what the tenant was to pay. He apparently believed
that this would prevent oppression by the Zamindars. In practice, however, no such
pattas were issued, and the peasants were wholly at the mercy of the Zamindars.
2. This was not accidental. As we have noted earlier, the permanent assessment was the
largest sum that could be got from the land It was a heavy and oppressive assessment.
According to the estimate of a knowledgeable official John Shore, if a piece of land
produced crops worth Rs.100, then Rs. 45 went to the government, Rs. 15 to the
zamindar and only Rs. 40 was left to the cultivator. Such oppressive taxes could only be
collected by oppressive methods. If the zamindars were not allowed to oppress the
peasants then they would not be able to meet the demands of the State. By regulations
made in 1794, 1799 and 1812, the zamindar could seize, that is, carry away the tenant’s
property if the rent had not been paid. He did not need the permission of any court of
law to do this. This was a legal method of harassment. In addition to this the zamindars
often resorted to illegal methods, such as locking up or beating tenants who did not pay
whatever was demanded. The immediate effect of the Settlement was, therefore, to
greatly worsen the position of the actual cultivators of the soil in order to benefit the
zamindars and the British Government.

Effects of the Permanent Settlement

1. It may seem that the settlement was greatly in favour of the zamindars but we should
not forget that they were also now obliged to paya fixed amount by fixed dates every
 year, and any failure on their part meant the sale of the zamindari. Furthermore, many
of the zamindaris were rated for large sums that left no margin for shortfalls due to
flood drought or other calamity. As a result, many zamindars had their zamindaris taken
away and sold in the decades immediately after the permanent Settlement. In Bengal
alone, it is estimated that 68 percent of the zamindari land was sold between 1794 and
1819. Merchants, government officials, and other zamindars bought these lands. The
new buyers would then set about trying to increase the rents paid by the tenants in
order to make a profit from their purchases. Raja Rammohan Roy remarked that “Under
the permanent settlement since 1793, the landholders have adopted every measure
to raise the rents, by means of the power put into their hands”.
2. However, many zamindars still found it difficult to pay the amount demanded by the
British. One such zamindar, the Raja of Burdwan then divided most of his estate into
lots or fractions called patni taluqas. Each such unit was permanently rented to a holder
called a Patnidar, who promised to pay a fixed rent If he did not pay, his patni could be
taken away and sold Other zamindars also resorted to this: thus a process of
subinfeudation commenced.
3. Gradually the population of Bengal increased; waste and jungle land came under
cultivation. Rents also increased On the other hand the tax payable to government was
fixed so the position of the zamindars improved and they were able to lead lives of
indolence and luxury at the expense of their tenants. Only in 1859 did the State take
some step to protect the rights of tenants: a law passed that year bestowed a limited
protection on old tenants, who were now termed occupancy tenants.

Ryotwari Settlement

1. The task of fixing the tax, or settling the revenue was a difficult task. The revenue was to
be fixed on thousands of fields in a sub-division or district, and to fix it in such a way
that the burden on each such field is approximately equal. If the burden is not equally
distributed then the cultivators will not occupy the heavily assessed fields, and cultivate
only those with a light assessment.
2. Now, in fixing the assessment of a field the revenue officer had to consider two things:
one was the quality of the soil – whether it was rocky or rich, irrigated or dry etc.; the
other was area of the field It followed therefore, that this system depended on a survey
and classification of land according to it. Thus one acre of first class rice land should pay
the same amount regardless of whether it was located in this village or that one.
3. Munro usually fixed it by estimating what the usual product of the land was – for
example – 2600 lbs. of paddy per acre. He would then claim that the State share of this
amounted to one third or two – fifths of this, and thus calculate the amount that the
cultivator had to pay the State. This, of course is the theory of Ryotwari – in practice,
the estimates were largely guesswork, and the amounts demanded so high that they
could be collected with great difficulty, and sometimes could not be collected at all.

Effects of the Ryotwari system in Madras and Bombay

1. The Permanent Settlement had established a few big zamindars in a position of

dominance over the mass of the peasants. The social effects of the Ryotwari
settlements were less dramatic. In many areas the actual cultivating peasants were
recorded as the occupants or ryots, and thus secured the title to their holdings.
However the tax was so heavy that many peasants would have gladly abandoned at
 least some of their land and had to be prevented from doing so. It was also possible for
non – cultivating landlords to have their names entered as the occupants (or owners) of
particular holdings, while the actual cultivation was carried on by their tenants, servants
or even bonded labourers. This was particularly the case in irrigated districts like
Thanjavur (in Tamil Nadu) where many of the ryots held thousands of acres of land.
There was no limit to the amount of land that a ryot could hold so there could be great
difference in wealth and status between one ryot and another. However, money-
lenders and other non – cultivators were not much interested in acquiring lands
because of the heavy taxes that came with them. Hence the small peasants, oppressed
though they might be by the tax – collector did not have to fear expropriation by the
money – lender or landlord.
2. Shekhar Bando Padhyaya said this was not so sound a system as it has propagated and
mostly poligar (Palegars) became Ryotwars.
3. In opinion of B.R. Mishra, despite different system of revenue, there was collective land
in all the village and there was common land also.
4. Baden Powell has supported this argument but said that land revenue system was
arbitrary as in the central provinces, there was no logic for Zamindari system.
5. Under the reformed Ryotwari system that gradually developed in Bombay after 1836
and Madras after 1858 the burden of the land revenue was somewhat reduced, and
land acquired a saleable value. The purchaser could now expect to make a profit from
owning land: the State would not take it all as tax. One result of this was that money-
lenders began to seize the lands of their peasant debtors and either evict them or
reduce them to tenants. This process led to considerable social tension, and caused a
major rural uprising in the Bombay Deccan in 1875.

The Mahalwari System

1. The aggressive policies of Lord Wellesley led to large territorial gains for the British in
North India between 1801 and 1806. These areas came to be called the North -Western
Provinces. Initially the British planned a settlement on the Bengal pattern, Wellesley
ordered the local officials to make the settlement with the zamindars wherever they
could, provided they agreed to pay suitably high land revenue. Only if the zamindars
refused to pay, or if zamindars could not be found then only the settlements was to be
made village by village giving the preference to the Mokuddums, Perdhauns, or any
respectable ryots of the village. Ultimately, the settlement was to be made permanent,
as in Bengal. In the meantime, however, every effort was made to enlarge the revenue
collection. The demand in 1803-04 was Rs.188 lakhs and by1817-18 it became Rs. 290
lakhs.
2. Such enormous increases provoked resistance from many of the big zamindars and
rajas, who had been almost independent in the earlier period Many of them were
therefore driven off their lands by the new administration. In other cases the old
zamindars could not pay the amount demanded and their estates were sold by the
Government Increasingly, therefore, it became necessary to collect revenue from the
village directly through its Pradhan or Muqaddam (headman). In the revenue records
the word used for a fiscal unit was a Mahal and the village wise assessment therefore
came to be called as Mahalwari settlement. It was however quite possible for one
person to hold a number of villages, so that many big zamindars continued to exist.
Furthermore, as in Bengal the confusion and coercion that accompanied the collection
of the very heavy land tax created fine opportunities for the local officials, and large
 areas of land were illegally acquired by them in the early years. Meanwhile, the
Government found that its expenditures were always exceeding its revenues, and the
idea of a permanent settlement was dropped.

Effects of the Mahalwari Settlement

1. One of the early effects was that the areas under the control of the big Taluqdars were
reduced The British officers made direct settlements with the village zamindars as far as
possible, and even supported them in the law courts when the Taluqdars brought suits
against them. But the so-called village zamindars were supported only because it was
planned to extract the highest possible revenue from them. They were freed from
Taluqdar’s claims only to subject them to a full measure of government taxation.
2. The result was often the ruin of the village zamindars. One officer reported that in many
villages of Aligarh: “the Jama (land revenue) was in the first place considerably too
heavy; and in which the Malgoozars revenue payers seem to have lost all hope of
improving their condition or of bearing up against the burden imposed on them. They
are now deeply in debt, and utterly incapable of making any arrangements for defraying
their arrears”.
3. The result of this situation was that large areas of land began to pass into the hands of
Money-lenders and merchants who ousted the old cultivating proprietors or reduced
them to tenants at will. This occurred most frequently in the more commercialized
districts, where the land revenue demand had been pushed to the highest level and
where the landholders suffered most acutely from the business collapse and export
depression after 1833. By the1840s it was not uncommon to find that no buyers could
be found to take land that was being sold for arrears of land revenue. As in the Madras
Presidency the tax in these cases was so high that the buyer could not expect to make
any profit from the purchase. Overall therefore, the Mahalwari settlement brought
impoverishment and widespread dispossession to the cultivating communities of North
India in the 1830s and 1840s, and their resentment expressed itself in popular uprisings
in 1857. In that year villagers and Taluqdars all over North India drove off government
officials, destroyed courts and official records and papers, and ejected the new auction
purchasers from the villages.

LAND REFORMS
The nationalist leadership during the struggle for freedom had mobilized peasantry on the
promise that once the county was liberated from colonial rule, they would introduce changes
in the land relations. This process was initiated immediately after independence. The central
government directed the state governments to pass “land reform legislations” that would
abolish the intermediary landlords, the zamindars, and grant the ownership rights to the actual
tillers of the land Some legislation was to also grant security to the tenants. The states also
fixed an upper ceiling on the holding size of land that a single household could possess. The
surplus land was to be surrendered to the state and was to be redistributed among those who
had no land.

The term land reform has been used both in narrow and in a broad sense. In the narrow and
generally accepted sense land reform means redistribution of rights in land for the benefit of
small farmers and landless people. This concept of land reform refers to its simplest element
commonly found in all land reform policies. On the other hand, in a broad sense land reform
is understood to means any reform is understood to mean any improvement in the
institutions of land system and agricultural organization. This understanding of land reform
suggests that land reform measures should go not only for redistribution of land but also
undertake other measures to improve conditions of agriculture. The United Nations has
accepted this notion of land reform. The UN definition says that the ideal land reform
programme is an integrated programme of measures designed to eliminate obstacles to
economic and social development arising out of defects in the agrarian structure.

In the present context also, by land reforms we mean all those measures which have been
undertaken in India by the government to remove structural obstacles in the agrarian
system.

Objectives of Land Reform

There are no universal motives behind land reforms but some common objectives may be
found everywhere:

1. Social justice and economic equality are the major objectives behind land reforms. The
ideal of equality has become part of people’s consciousness in the modern world.
Particularly in a traditional hierarchical society, the idea of equality has emerged as a
revolutionary force. It also subsumes the elimination of the worst forms of
discrimination and poverty. The ideology of equality and social justice has been
expressed in terms of programmes like land reforms and poverty alleviation.
2. Secondly, nationalism has been another motivation behind land reforms. Most of the
developing countries in the world gained independence mainly after the Second World
War. Thus, the achievement or national independence has been associated with the
removal of institutional structures created during the colonial rule. Such structures may
include the ownership of large estates by persons of alien nationality or various forms of
land tenures imposed under the colonial rule. The abolition of zamindari in India is an
outstanding example. Zamindari, a form of land settlement established during the
British rule was a symbol of colonial exploitation. Naturally, it was always a target for
the leaders of India’s freedom struggle. Accordingly, its abolition became the goal of the
first phase of land reform measures after independence.
3. Thirdly, the urge for democracy in contemporary world is another factor behind land
reform programes. The idea of democracy has become a moving force in political
power. The goal of liberty and justice can be achieved only in a democratic society. In
this manner, even the poor and the deprived express, their grievances and articulate
their demands in a democratic way. Thus an environment for reforms is created.
4. Finally, land reform is taken as a means to increase productivity of land. It is thus
considered one of the key issues in economic development in agricultural societies. It
has been adopted as central programme for agricultural development. The basic issues
of agrarian reorganization are resolved through effective implementation of land reform
measures.

LAND REFORMS IN INDIA

Land reforms in India got underway both in political factors as well as in organizational
mobilization of peasantry. The political factors were associated first with British rule and
later with the growth of nationalism. It created a situation in which undertaking land reform
measures became a compulsion for the government. Thus, some agrarian legislations which
attempt to protect the rights of tenants date back to the middle of the nineteenth century.

The poverty of the people and extreme exploitation of the peasantry by zamindars and
moneylenders attracted the attention of political leaders during the freedom struggle. It
became an important plank of the programme of the Indian National Congress. A major
programme of agrarian reform was presented in 1936 at Jawaharlal Nehru’s initiative and
Mahatma Gandhi’s approval. In his presidential address at Faizpur Session of the Congress,
Nehru asked for “the removal of intermediaries between the cultivator and State” after which
“cooperative or collective farming must follow.”

Almost around the same time, pressure was being created by the increasing number of
peasant struggles in different parts of the country. The All India Kisan Sabha in its meeting at
Lucknow in 1936 demanded the abolition of Zamindari, occupancy rights for tenant’s
redistribution of cultivable waste land to landless labourers and others. In fact, between 1920
and 1946 several peasant organizations emerged which expressed the grievances of the middle
and poor peasant. The Kisan Sabha Movement led by Swami Sahajan and Saraswati, the Kheda
Agitation of 1918, the Bardoli Satyagrah of 1928, and the Tebhaga Movement of 1946-47 in
Bengal were some of the major peasant struggles of the pre Independence days. Agrarian
discontent and injustice had spread throughout the country. These grievances were expressed
in widespread conflicts between peasants and landlords. But if seen in the context of their
goals, these peasant struggles produced positive results. The pressure created by the long
drawn struggles compelled the Government to work out plans for the redressal of the
complaints of peasants. In this sense, independence assumed historical importance for the
land reform programmes that began just after the independence.

Shortly after the independence ample emphasis was put on land reforms as part of the
national policy to transform iniquitous agrarian structure. The strategy adopted was to
introduce land reforms through land legislation. It was broadly indicated by the Government of
India and enacted by the state legislatures.

The primary objectives of land reforms after Independence were :

1. To remove motivational and other impediments which arise from the agrarian structure
inherited from the past, and
2. To eliminate all elements of exploitation and social justice within the agrarian system so
as to ensure equality of status and opportunity to all sections of the population.

Programmes of action to achieve these objectives :

1. The abolition of all forms of intermediaries between the state and the tiller of the soil.
2. Conferment of ownership rights on the cultivating tenants in the land held under their
possession.
3. Imposition of ceiling on agricultural land holdings.
4. consolidation of holdings with a view to making easier the application of modern
techniques of agriculture,
5. Rationalization of the record of rights in land.
Abolition of Intermediaries : The British rulers introduced three major forms of land
settlements- Zamindari, Raiyatwari and Mahalwari – to gain maximum revenue from land
Under the Zamindari system the rights of property in land were given to the local rent
gatherers. These persons were called Zamindars and belonged generally to the upper castes of
the community. This new settlement turned the actual cultivators into tenants. This structural
change in the land system created a class of intermediary between the State and the actual
tillers of the soil. Under the Raiyatwari system no intermediary owners were recognized. The
actual tillers of the soil were given transferable rights in their lands. But under this system also
influential Raiyats emerged as powerful landholders. In the Mahalwari settlement too, a class
of intermediaries had emerged.

These intermediaries had no interest in land management and improvement Moreover, while
the Zamindars were required to pay a fixed amount of revenue to the Government, there was
no limit on collections from the actual cultivators. Numerous illegal cesses were imposed from
time to time. The Zamindari system allowed a high level of absenteeism. Thus, the system was
not only unjust but it was also characterized by acute economic exploitation and social
oppression.

It was against this background that abolition of intermediary interests became the first target
of land reforms during the early years of the independence. This measure, undertaken all over
the country, essentially sought removal of all intermediaries Like Zamindari, Jagirdari and
others. It brought cultivators into direct relationship with the State. It conferred permanent
rights in land to these actual cultivators. Accordingly, by 1954-55 almost all States abolished
intermediary tenures through several land reform legislations. The abolition of intermediary
tenures represents a remarkable transition to a modern agrarian structure.

Tenancy reform : Use and occupancy of land of another person on a rental basis is known as
tenancy. Tenancy in land has been a widespread practice in different parts of the country.
Different forms of tenancy such as the share cropping system, the fixed-kind produce system,
the fixed-cash practice have existed both in the Zamindari and Raiyatwari settled areas. Under
the system ,the small fanners and landless people lease-in-land for cultivation from rich
landowners. These landless cultivators pay rent in kind produce or cash to the landowners in
return for land. They are known as tenants (local names are: Adhiars in Assam, Baragadars in
West Bengal, Bataidars in Bihar, Warmadars in Tamil Nadu, Kamins in Punjab etc.). These
tenants have weak socio-economic position and lack security and protection. They may be
evicted any time by the landowners. Thus, they have been tenants- at will for all practical
purposes.

In view of large scale prevalence of tenancy, reforms were introduced to rationalize the rights
and obligations of various classes of tenants. Tenancy reforms laid emphasis on three major
aspects of the problem :

1. Regulation of rent
2. Security of tenure; and
3. Right of purchase for the tenants.

These steps have been taken to improve the condition of cultivating tenants. They have been
protected against rack-renting through the regulation of rent. Security of tenure for tenants
has regulated eviction from land by the landowners. The tenants have also been conferred
ownership rights over the lands cultivated by them as tenants. Over 124.22 lakh tenants have
got their rights protected over an area of 156.30 lakh acres till September 2000.

Ceiling on Landholding : The basic objective of fixation of ceiling on landholdings is to acquire

land above a certain level from the present landholders for its distribution among the landless.
It is primarily a redistributive measure based on the principle of socio-economic justice. The
disparity in landownership in India is a well known fact. While nearly one-fourth of rural
households have no land at all there were a large number of landholders owning thousands of
acres each on the eve of independence. Thus, fixation of ceiling on agricultural holdings has
been used as a means to correct this imbalance.

Legislations imposing ceiling on landholdings formed the second phase of land reform package
in the independent India. This process began during the Second Five Year Plan in most states.
Almost all the states have legislations restricting the size of holdings which a person or family
can own. However, the permissible size varies according to the quality of land. Acquisition of
land in excess of the ceiling is prohibited. Land rendered surplus to the ceiling is taken over by
the state and distributed among the weaker sections of the community.

Though land ceiling laws have been passed within the broader framework suggested by the
Central Government, there are differences among various state laws. In all the Acts there are a
variety of exemptions from the ceiling. The ceilings fixed are also different. While in most
states, the ceilings fixed are vary high, in others ample scope is left for manipulation by the
landowners. The process of taking possession of surplus land its distribution among the
landless is, rather slow.

The total quantum of land declared surplus in the entire county since inception till September
2000 is 73.49 lakh acres. Out of this, only about 64.84 lakh acres have been taken possession of
and 52.99 lakh acres have been distributed The total number of beneficiaries of this scheme in
the country is 55.10 lakh, of whom 36 per cent belong to the Scheduled Castes and 15 per cent
to the Scheduled Tribes.

Consolidation of Holdings: The fragmentation of landholdings has been an important

impediment in agricultural development. Most holdings are not only small but also widely
scattered. Thus, legislative measures for consolidation of holdings have been undertaken in
most of the states. Major focus has been on the consolidation of the land of a holder at one or
two places for enabling them to make better use of resources. Attempts have also been made
to take measures for consolidation in the command areas of major irrigation projects.

Land Records : The record of rights in land has been faulty and unsatisfactory. The availability
of correct and up-to-date records has always been a problem. It is in view of this that updating
of land records has now been made a part of land reform measures.

Nonetheless several states have initiated the process of updating the land records through
revisional surveys and settlements. Steps have also been taken to computerize these records.
A centrally sponsored Scheme on Computerization of Land Records has been launched with a
view to remove the problems inherent in the manual system of maintenance and updating of
land records.
CRITICS
However, progress in this respect has been poor. The Five Year Plan documents say that “in
several States, information regarding tenants, sub-tenants and crop-sharers has not been
obtained yet” It has further been highlighted that large areas of the country still do not have
up-to-date land records. The main reason behind this has been strong opposition of big
landowners.

Though the legislations were passed by all the states, only in some cases they produced
desired effects. It has been argued that only in those parts of the country where peasants were
politically mobilized that the land reforms could be effectively implemented. While the
zamindari system was abolished in most parts, the ceiling legislations had very little effect.

1. The process of agrarian reforms is inherently a political question. The choices made by
the Indian state and the actual implementation of land reforms were determined by the
politics of the new regime rather than by the theoretical superiority of a particular
position. The Indian state chose to reorganize agrarian relations through redistribution
of land but not in a comprehensive and radical manner. Joshi described it as sectorial or
sectional reforms. The Government of India directed its states to abolish intermediary
tenures, regulate rent and tenancy rights, confer ownership right son tenants, impose
ceilings on holdings, distribute the surplus land among the rural poor and facilitate
consolidation of holdings. A large number of legislations were passed by the state
government over a short period of time.
2. However most of the legislations provided loopholes that allowed the dominant
landowners to tamper with land records by redistributing land among relatives, evicting
their tenants and using other means to escape the legislations. In the absence of
concerted political will land reforms could succeed only in regions where the peasantry
was politically mobilized and could exert pressure from below.
3. S.R. Hashmi, an agrarian economist said that the land reform measure had three
drawbacks-
 There were many loopholes in the laws and land owners were sufficiently capable of
using these loopholes by the their lawyers. Arun Sinha said, Judiciary had fair
representation of land owners and they contributed to its demise.
 The political leadership was not in favour of these measure because on the one hand
they feared that this may go against them in elections and on other hand in most cases
they themselves were from large land owning families.
 They are not ready to implement them. This was the nature of ‘soft state’ as Gunnar
Myrdal pointed out.
4. Despite overall failure, land reforms succeeded in weakening the hold of absentee
landlords over rural society and assisted in the emergence of a class of substantial
peasants and petty landlords as the dominant political and economic group. For
example in Rajasthan though the abolition of jagirs was far from satisfactory it made
considerable difference to the overall land ownership patterns and to the local and
regional power structures. The Rajputs possessed much less land after the land reforms
than they did before. Most of the village land had moved into the hands of those who
could be called small and medium landowners. In qualitative terms most of the land
begins to be self-cultivated and the incidence of tenancy declined considerably. The fear
of losing land induced many potential losers to sell or rearrange their lands in a manner
that escaped legislations.
 5. T. Besley and R. Burgers in their studies of 2000 of 16 states said land eading act had no
impact either on productivity or on poverty.
6. However in few cases the landless labourers living in the countryside most of whom
belonged to the ex-touchable castes received land. The beneficiaries by and large
belonged to middle level caste groups who traditionally cultivated land as a part of the
calling of their castes. While land reforms were supposed to deal with the problem of
landlordism, the hold of moneylenders over the peasantry was to be weakened by
providing credit through institutional sources initially by credit societies and later by the
nationalized commercial banks. According to the findings of an official survey carried
out immediately after Independence from colonial rule up to approximately 91% of the
credit needs of cultivators were being met by informal sources of credit. Much of this
came from moneylenders. Indian state planned to expand the network of cooperative
credit societies. With the imposition of social control and later their nationalization,
commercial banks were also asked to lend to the agricultural sector on priority basis.
Over the years the dependence of rural households on informal sources has come down
significantly. The assessment studies on the cooperative credit societies showed that
much of their credit went to the relatively better of sections of rural society and the
poor continued to depend on the more expensive informal sources. This was explained
as a consequence of the prevailing structure of land tenures. The state response was to
bureaucratize the cooperative societies. Though in some regions this helped in releasing
credit societies from the hold of big landowners, bureaucratization also led to rampant
corruption and increasing apathy among those whom they were supposed to serve.
7. Yet despite inherent bias of institutional credit against the rural poor, its availability
played an important role in making the green revolution a success and definitely helped
to marginalize the professional moneylender in the rural power structure. Despite many
loopholes, apart from increasing productivity of land, these changes have transformed
the social framework of the Indian agriculture. Agriculture in most parts of India is now
carried out on commercial lines. The old structure of jajmani relations has more or less
completely disintegrated giving way to more formalized arrangements among the
cultivators and those who work for them. Some scholars have these changes indicate
that capitalist form of production is developing in agriculture and a new class structure
is emerging in the Indian countryside.
8. R.S. Deshpande in his book current land policy issues in India (2000) wrote globalization
has changed very question of land In opinion of ManpreetSethi. In the current context,
there is emphasis on productivity and market World bank and MNCs are supporting rich
peasants who are not allowing small peasant to get any grants from the government.
9. By as (1999) said 149 million hectares or 43% of all land has become polluted and
another 34 million hectare land is on the verge of getting polluted. According to By as
land question today should not only be concerned with land redistribution rather the
environmental protection should be considered.

Jajmani System in Rural Society

1. The notion of the jajmani system was popularized by colonial ethnography. It tended to
conceptualize agrarian social structure in the framework of exchange relations. In its
classical construct: different caste groups specialized in specific occupations and
exchanged their services through an elaborate system of division of labor. Though
asymmetry in position of various caste groups was recognized what it emphasized was
not inequality in rights over land but the spirit of community. Wiser argued each served
 the other. Each in turn was master. Each in turn was servant. This system of inter
relatedness in service within Hindu community was called theJajmani system. Central to
such a construction of exchange is the idea of reciprocity (Gouldner) with the
assumption that it was a non-exploitative system where mutual gratification was
supposed to be the outcome of the reciprocal exchange.
2. Inter-caste relations at the village level constitute vertical ties. They may be classified
into economic, ritual political and civic ties. The castes living in a village are bound
together by economic ties. Generally peasant castes are numerically preponderant in
villages and they need the carpenter; blacksmith and leather worker castes to perform
agricultural work. Servicing castes such as priest; barber, and washerman and water
carrier cater to the needs of everyone except the Harijans. Artisan castes produce goods
which are wanted by every one. Most Indian villages do not have more than a few of the
essential castes and depend on neighboring villages for certain services, skills and
goods.
3. In rural India with its largely subsistence and not fully monetized economy the
relationship between the different caste groups in a village takes a particular form. The
essential artisan and servicing castes are paid annually in grain at harvest time. In some
parts of India the artisan and servicing castes are also provided with free food clothing,
fodder and residential site. On such occasions as birth, marriage and death, these castes
perform extra duties for which they are paid customary money and some gifts in kind.
This type of relationship is found all over India and is called by different names-jajmani
in north, bara balute in Maharashtra, mirasi in Tamil Nadu and adade in Karnataka.
4. Oscar Lewis defined jajmani system as that under which each caste group within a
village is expected to give certain standardized services to the families of other castes.
]ajmani is more than a relationship between families than between castes. ]ajmani is
sort of mutual give and take form of relationship in which one family is hereditarily
entitled to supply goods and render services to the other in exchange of the same. The
person rendering the services or supplying the goods is known as kameen or prajan and
the person to whom the services are rendered is called a jajman. Thus under jajmani
system a permanent informal bond is made between jajman and kameen to meet each
other’s need for good and services.

Main features of Jajmani System

The Jajmani system is characterized by the following features :

1. Unbroken relationship- Under the jajmani system the kameen remains obliged to render
the services throughout his life to a particular jajman and the jajman in turn has the
responsibility of hiring services of a kameen.
2. Hereditary relationship- Jajmani rights are enjoyed hereditarily. After the death of a
man his son is entitled to work as kameen for the same jajman family of families. The
son of a jajman also accepts the son of the kameen as his kameen.
3. Multidimensional relationship- Due to the permanency of relationship both the jajman
and kameen families become mutually dependent on each other. The relationship
becomes very deep. They often take part in the personal and family affairs, family
rituals and ceremonies.
4. Barter exchange-Under jajmani system the payments are made mainly in terms of goods
and commodities. The kameen gets his necessities from the jajman in return of his
services. The jajmani system has gradually decayed in modern society. There are many
 reasons responsible for it. Modern economic system that measures everything in terms
of its monetary value. The decline of belief in caste system and hereditary occupation
has given a strong blow to the system. Growth of better employment opportunities
outside the village and introduction of new transport options.

Role of Caste in Rural Society

1. Caste stands as a pivot of rural social structure. It acts as the most powerful
determinant of individual behavior and social order in rural unity. Caste is the
determinant of individual status and role. It determines the status of the individual as
soon as he takes birth. Hutton says that the system provides him from birth a fixed
social milieu from which neither wealth nor property, success nor disaster can remove
him unless of course he so violates standards of behavior lay down by the caste.
2. Caste also guides the behavior of an individual in his conduct, his association and
interaction. It has helped maintain the continuity of social order by preserving its
pattern of culture and traditions. It plays a vital role in the process of socialization by
teaching individuals the culture and traditions; values and norms of their society.
3. It unifies society in a chain by assigning different places and positions to different
groups. It works as the basis of division of labor in society which keeps society away
from tensions and conflicts arising out of competition for occupation, power and
prestige.
4. Caste also has a deep influence in the religious lives of rural people. The notion of karma
and dharma kept social and economic system intact. Performance of rituals,
worshipping of different kinds of Gods and Goddesses and celebration of festivals are
determined by the caste system.
5. There are some negative aspects according to P.N Bose the caste system has acted
essentially to impose that attitude of mind needed to raise men from savagery but to
stop them halfway on progress. Caste acts as a barrier to modernization. Modernization
essentially needs a change in outlook and mentality along with socioeconomic
development. It has hindered development as it imposes strict rules regarding
occupation of different people. The society characterized by the caste system is a closed
one permitting very little or no social mobility. It acts as a perpetuating force of social
inequality and untouchability. lt is based on inequality of status and opportunities which
often creates conflict and tension in the society.

Agrarian Changes After Independence In Rural Society :

1. In many ways independence from colonial rule in 1947 marked the beginning of a new
phase in the history of Indian agriculture. Having evolved out of a long struggle against
colonial rule with the participation of the people from various social categories, the
Indian state also took over the task of supervising the transformation of its stagnant and
backward economy to make sure that the benefits of economic growth were not
monopolized entirely by a particular section of society. It is with this background that
development emerged as a strategy of economic change and an ideology of the new
regime.
2. However at the micro-level the structures that evolved during colonial rule still
continued to exist. The local interests that had emerged over a long period of time
continued to be powerful in the Indian countryside even after the political climate had
changed. According to Daniel Thorner, the earlier structure of land relations and debt
 dependencies where a small section consisting of few landlords and money lenders
were dominant continued to prevail in the Indian countryside. The nature of property
relations, the local values that related social prestige negatively to physical labour and
the absence of any surplus with the actual cultivator for investment on land ultimately
perpetuated stagnation. This complex of legal economic and social relations typical of
Indian countryside served to produce an effect that Thorner described as a built -in
depressor.

Caste System

Perspectives on the Study of Caste Systems: GS Ghurye, M N Srinivas, Louis Dumont, Andre
Beteille

GS. GHURYE
Ghurye’s approach towards caste is attributional Attributional approach discusses primarily the
significant features of the caste system and what distinguishes it from other forms of social
stratification. For Ghurye each caste was separated from the other in a hierarchical order. This
ordering sprang from the attributes of a caste. Ghurye cognitively combined historical
anthropological and sociological perspectives to understand caste and kinship system in India.
He tried to analyze caste system through textual evidences using ancient texts; on the one
hand and also from both structural and cultural perspectives, on the other hand. Ghurye
studied caste system from a historical comparative and integrative perspective.

Later on he did comparative study of kinship of Indo-European cultures. In his study of caste
and kinship, Ghurye emphasizes two important points :

1. The kin and caste networks in India had parallels in some other societies also.
2. The kinship and caste in India served in the past as integrative frameworks.
3. The evolution of society was based on the integration of diverse, racial or ethnic groups
through these networks. Ghurye highlights six structural features of caste system as
follows:
4. Segmental division : Membership of a caste group is acquired by birth and with it come
the position in the rank order relative to other castes.
5. According to Ghurye, During british rule, people of different castes joined same
occupation, say army therefore occupational status (Class Position) was same but in
private life caste identities still dominant Even in British organization caste hierarchies
persisted Caste was able to maintain its distinctive identity even in class structure or
private life due to the reason that caste councils (having legislature, executive and
judicial powers). British structure couldn’t touch private life Indian Caste man. Also,
voluntaristic integration of caste culture through marriages, death, rituals strengthened
case values and norms and accepted voluntarily dictates rules of caste councils.
Therefore caste contributes to segmentation of people while culture promotes unity of
people of India.
6. Hierarchy : Following from the above, society was arranged in rank orders, or relations
of superiority or inferiority. Thus Brahmins were accepted as highest in the hierarchy
and untouchables at the very bottom.
 7. In opinion of Ghurye, Hierarchical nature of Indian society generally over glorified by
westerns schools. They suffer from Eurocentric bias. Ghurye cites ‘Jon Hayer’s writings’
(1670) Hierarchical gradation of people clearly exists but hierarchical position of caste is
not absolutely visible. For example, In south India, Brahmanical superiority is not
automatic but constantly challenged or resisted Bhakti Saints were considered purer
than Brahmins in reality. Kayasthas and Nayars asserted their position through mughal
patronage. So hierarchical system (caste) persists; but hierarchical position in reality
isn’t ideal Negotiation of internal forces. So actually caste is a Competitive Hierarchy.
8. Ghurye makes comparative analysis of food behaviour among various caste groups in
different parts of the country (TN, Bengal, Maharashtra) to come forward with a
conclusion that there is a strong correspondence between food hierarchy and caste
hierarchy. Develops Interactional theory to caste. He concludes by indicating that if a
caste receives highest no. of food items from maximum numbers of caste then lower is
it’s position in caste hierarchy and vice versa.
9. Pollution and purity: In this idea the whole effort of a caste was to avoid contamination
from polluting object (those involved in unclean occupations or of the lowest castes).
This shunning of pollution is reflected in the residential separation of the caste group.
10. Civil and religious disabilities and privileges of different sections : These were placed
on every caste which gave permission to its members only to interact with particular
groups of people. This included its dress, speech, customs and rituals and from whom
they could accept food. The system was geared to maintain purity of the group
members, hence of the caste group.
11. Lack of choice of occupation: Ghurye felt that every caste had a traditional occupation.
The clean castes had clean occupation whereas unclean and impure castes had defiling
occupations.
12. Restrictions on marriage : This trait of the castes was very distinct and essential to
keeping it together as a group that maintained its own distinct character. Essentially it
maintained that one could only marry within ones castes.

Besides the above characteristics, Ghurye laid particular stress on endogamy as the most
important feature of the caste system. Any effective unit of the caste hierarchy is marked by
endogamy. Every caste had in the past segmented into smaller sub-divisions or sub-castes.
Each of these sub-castes practiced endogamy. For example, Vaishya castes are divided into
various sub-castes such as Agrawal, Maheshwari etc.

Caste is also linked with kinship through caste endogamy and also clan (gotra) exogamy.
Gotra has been treated as thoroughly exogamous unit by the Brahmins and later by the non-
Brahmins. The basic notion here is that all the members of a gotra are related to one another,
through blood, i.e., they have rishi (sage) as their common ancestor. Therefore, marriage
between two persons of the same gotra will lead to incestuous relationship. It will lead the
lineage of the gotra to near extinction.

The relationship between caste and kinship is very close because

1. Exogamy in our society is largely based on kinship, either real or imaginary and
2. The effective unit of caste, sub-caste is largely constituted of kinsmen.

To Ghurye, these are three types of marriage restrictions in our society, which shape the
relationship between caste and kinship. These are endogamy, exogamy and
hypergamy. Exogamy can be divided into parts :
 1. Sapinda or prohibited degrees of kin, and
2. Sept or gotra exogamy-The gotra were kin categories of Indo-European cultures which
systematized the rank and status of the people. These categories were derived from
rishis (saints) of the past These rishis were the real or eponymous founder of the gotra.
In India, descent has not always been traced to the blood tie. The lineages were often
based on spiritual descent from sages of the past. Outside the kinship, one might notice
the guru-shisya (teacher-student) relationship, which is also based on spiritual descent.
A disciple is proud to trace his descent from a master. Likewise, caste and sub-caste
integrated people into a ranked order based on norms of purity pollution. The rules of
endogamy and commensality marked off castes from each other. This was integrative
instrument, which organized from into a totality or collectivity.The Hindu religion
provided the conceptual and ritualistic guidelines for this integration. The Brahmins of
India played a key role in legitimizing the caste ranks and orders through their
interpretation of Dharmashastras, which were the compendia of scared codes.
3. Ghurye said caste system is a functional division, provides order to Indian society. He
did not refer to pitfalls, drawbacks which have entered the caste system. He opposed
caste riots near Bombay in between Brahmans and untouchables. He said such things
are happening because different caste groups are not following their classical duties or
dharma.
4. Ghurye has been criticized by Coral Upadhyay, as he provides Hindu classical view of
caste system. Upadhyay said Ghurye has not been an empirical sociologist and he did
not refer to the ideological aspects of caste system. Which could have strengthened
these ideas.
5. Sujatha Patel said, his view are Brahmanical views which cannot be sustained in all parts
of India. She said in certain areas Brahmans are not regarded ritually superior.

M.N. SRINIVAS
Srinivas approach to study of caste is attributional. The sociologists using the attributional
approach stress the attributes of caste. However, each of them lays emphasis on one or
other of these attributes and how they affect interaction. In case of Srinivas, we find that he
chooses to study the structure of relations arising between castes on the basis of these
attributes. Thus he introduces dynamic aspect of caste identity very forcefully. This aspect
becomes dearer in Srinivas’s work on positional mobility known as ‘Sanskritisation’ and
concept of ‘Dominant Castes’.

Srinivas assigned certain attributes to the caste system. These are :

1. Hierarchy: To Srinivas, hierarchy is the core or the essence of the caste system. It refers
to the arrangements of hereditary groups in a rank order. He points out that it is status
of the top-most or Brahmins and the bottom-most or untouchables, which is the
clearest in terms of rank. The middle regions of hierarchy are the most flexible, who
maybe defined as members of the middle ranks.
2. Occupational differentiation : Srinivas finds a close relationship between a caste and its
occupation. He says that caste is nothing more the “systematization of occupational
differentiation”. Castes are known by their occupations and many derive their name
from the occupation followed e.g., Lohar, Sonar, Kumhar, Teli, Chamar etc. He also
stresses that occupation are placed in a hierarchy of high and low.
 3. Restrictions on commensality, dress speech and custom are also found among castes.
There is a dietic hierarchy and restrictions on acceptance of food
4. Pollution: The distance between castes is maintained by the principles of pollution.
Srinivas too argues that the castes must not come into contact with anything that is
polluted whether an object or being. Any contact with polluted renders a caste impure
and demands that the polluted caste undergo purification rites. If pollution is serious
such as when a high caste person has sexual relations with an untouchable, the person
involved may be removed from his or her caste.
5. Caste Panchayats and Assemblies: Besides the above mentioned attributes of a caste,
every caste is subject to the control of an order maintain body or a Panchayat. Elder of
each caste in a village together maintain the social order by exercising their authority
collectively. Further, every caste member is answerable to the authority of its Caste
Assembly. The authority of a Caste Assembly may extend beyond village boundaries to
include in its jurisdiction of caste in other villages. Srinivas views caste as segmentary
system. Every caste, for him, is divided into sub-castes which are :
6. The unit of endogamy;
7. Whose members follow a common occupation;
8. The units of social and ritual life;
9. Whose members share a common culture; and
10. Whose members are governed by the same authoritative body, viz., the Panchayat.

From the above, we can infer that the attributes of a caste definitely determined the nature
of intercaste relations. There attributes or customs of caste also determine the rank of a
caste. This becomes obvious in the work of Srinivas on caste mobility or sanskritisation.

Varna and Caste

1. He emphasis that you can’t understand India, without understanding caste. Many
western schools, mistakingly considered caste and varna synonymous. Varna theory
proclaims that caste is a product of segmentation of particular varna but Srinivas says,
it’s not so, caste has not came out of varna. It’s complex reality. A matter of fact that
capturing power, proximity with ruling class, migration and changing one’s cultural traits
through sanskritisation.
2. Different varnas changed their social ranks. Also people of same varna do not enjoy
relative superiority to inferior varnas. Such Eurocentric analysis is not apt for India.
Therefore he argues that “Caste is implicit in Varna” therefore caste and varna coexist
“Caste is different from varna “ and “Caste and varna are regularly engaged in conflict
with each other. So relationship is dynamic and complex.
3. According to Srinivas, Varna is an evolving concept As Rigveda was expanded it evolved
Initially 2 Varnas, based on race-Aryans and Dasayus. Later Rigveda mentions 3 Varnas
based on race and occupation as Brahma (Priest-Fair), shetri- (Red-Wamos),vis-(mix
colour-Commoners), Later, Purushashuta tells 4 Varnas, Varnas evolved from bodily
parts of god Brahmins as priest, teacher and composers coming out of mouthing god
Kshatrya as ruler coming out of Arms of god Vaishya as traders coming out of thighs of
god and Shudra coming out of legs (Calves) as serviceman, agriculturalists.
4. Later tatriya Samhita edits the brahmanical origin is mouth of god to face of god It
signifies all the good in society. It shows that through editing texts, Brahmanical
supremacy was glorified So varna system subjected to evolution and
reinterpretations.So very complex phenomenon. Varna system does not give full
 understanding of Indian society. But caste includes all so caste understanding is
totalistic and all inclusive.
5. Varna system professes ‘homogenetic category’ of Varna but in reality they are
diversified on the basis of castes, e.g. Shudra Varna and diverse backgrounds. Some
tribal merged into caste system, some rich and powerful Shudras, some traditional
Shudras. Therefore diversity is present among them. Dynamic relationship exists, not
simple and homogenous hierarchy present Varna gives unrealistic, contesting, textual
and static view of social reality. Therefore he suggest for empirical understanding
through field view instead of book view.

Why them Varna still used in Indian Society?

1. In opinion of Srinivas, caste is numerous, localized and diverse group. So in far lands, we
need to use our Varna identity to locate our castes.So that food exchange rules can be
followed accordingly.Therefore Varna streamlines inter caste relationship in inter-
regional level.
2. When caste model does not give space for mobility (as sanskritised castes who are
politico-economically powerful). They can fulfill their apparitions through model &
mobility.
3. Therefore Varna provides a readymade model to develop an empirical sense of caste. So
many sociologists do not make a distinction between book view of India, different from
field view of India. They use Varna view of India to explain Indian society as hierarchical
and static, which is so different from social empirical fact.
4. Therefore, Varna should be treated as an ideological frame of reference to study
empirical nature of caste.

IDEA OF DOMINANT CAST

Besides caste, Srinivas looks for yet another source or manifestation of tradition. He found it in
the notion of ‘dominant caste’. He first proposed it in his early papers on the village of
Rampura. The concept has been discussed and applied to a great deal in work on social and
political organization in India. He had defined dominant caste in terms of six attributes
placed in conjunction :

1. Sizeable amount of arable land;

2. Strength of numbers;
3. High place in the local hierarchy;
4. Western education;
5. Jobs in the administration; and
6. Urban sources of income.

Of the above attributes of the dominant caste, the following three are important :

1. Numerical strength,
2. Economic power through ownership of land, and
3. Political power.

Accordingly, a dominant caste is any caste that has all three of the above attributes in a village
community. The interesting aspect of this concept is that the ritual ranking of caste no longer
remains the major basis of its position in the social hierarchy. Even if a caste stands low in the
social hierarchy because of being ranked low, it can become the dominant ruling caste or
group in a village if it is numerically large, owns land and has political influence over village
matters. There is no doubt that a caste with relatively higher in ritual rank would probably find
it easier to become dominant But this is not the case always.

In his study of Rampur village, there are a number of castes including Brahmins, peasants
and untouchables. The peasants are ritually ranked below the Brahmins, but they own lands
and numerically preponderant and have political influence over village affairs. Consequently,
despite their low ritual rank, the peasants are the dominant caste in the village. All the other
castes of the village stand in a relationship of service to the dominant caste, i.e., they are at the
back of the dominant caste.

In opinion of Srinivas, Dominant castes in India in many places have accommodated

democracy. It has become part of ruling parties, other political parties attract them.

In his book caste and democracy and other essays he said caste has accommodate with
democracy. Y.Singh said traditional institution of caste is playing a modern role. He said it
plays many roles.

1. It plays economic role by control and possession of economic resources.

2. In political role they take the decisions and mediate between conflicting parties.
3. For long period it played role of conservation and status quoism which is being
challenged increasingly.
4. Dominant class plays cultural roles by deciding where cultural performances will be
held. They decided the modern cultural events.

Pauline kolenda said that Srinivas took the term dominant from Evans Pritchard who had
studied never tribe of sudan and had used terms dominant clan as superior clan which may
have village relevance, area relevance or regional relevance.

K.L. Sharma said, there are no all India ‘Dominant Castes’ but there are people who say all
India dominance exists.

Srinivas was criticized for this concept with the charge that is was smuggled from the notion
of dominance, which emerged from African sociology. Repudiating the critique, Srinivas
asserted that the idea of dominant caste given by him had its origin in the field work of Coorgs
of South India. His field work had impressed upon him that communities, such as the Coorgs
and the Okkaligas, wielded considerable power at the local level and shared such social
attributes as numerical preponderance, economic strength and clean ritual status. He further
noted that the dominant caste could be a local source of sanskritisation. Sanskritisation and
dominant caste are therefore representation of Indian tradition. And, in this conceptual frame
work, the traditions of the lower castes and Dalits have no place, nowhere in village India; the
subaltern groups occupy the status of dominant caste.

Through this theory he validated fieldwork as an essential methodology of the disciplines of

sociology and social anthropology. Secondly, it offered a ground view that challenged the
colonial notion of caste as static and unchanging. Through terms such as
“sanskritisation”,”dominant caste”, “vertical (inter caste) and horizontal (intracaste)
solidarities”,Srinivas sought to capture the fluid and dynamic essence of caste as a social
institution.Thirdly, it rejected the idea of a rigid, pan-Indian caste system, widely upheld in
scholarship then. Instead his study asserted the importance of the regional dimensions of caste
and the “little traditions” of Hinduism. At a time when an influential section of India’s
intelligentsia optimistically believed that caste would disintegrate under the march of
modernisation, it was both prescient and brave of Srinivas to have argued to the contrary.
Caste, he firmly believed would continue to find expression in the public and private lives of
Indians. Srinivas, however, never supported caste-based reservation as a programme to alter
unequal caste equation.

Deepankar Gupta while criticizing Srinivas said The criteria of numbers is wrong. In western
U.P. Jats are 9% and Dalits are 25% but power is held by the Jats.

His views on caste hierarchy

1. M.N. Srinivas’s view on caste hierarchy is different from his predecessors who believes
that it is the Ritual hierarchy, e.g. Louis domant argues that it is all accepted and
institutionalized hierarchy based on pureness. So it is fixed hierarchy. Srinivas reject this
view, due to its textual orientation. Instead he argues for empirical understanding of
caste hierarchy. He proposes concept of two hierarchy, i.e. (1) Ritual hierarchy (2)
Secular hierarchy.
 Ritual hierarchy is defined by birth, food mannerism, language, dress, ritual and rites
(purity and pollution).
 While secular hierarchy is largely defined by wealth, political power and education,
occupation.
2. He considered that on the basis of empirical evidence that ritual status of a caste is not
definitely fixed as glorified by Indologist and culturologist. e.g. Lingayat Brahmins of
Karnataka proclaim superior status even in comparison to born Brahmins; In Bengal the
follower of lord chaitanya identifies themselves as parchaskhyas who follows strict ritual
standards even in comparison to Brahmin and obtain superior status in relation to local
Brahmin; Bhumihars is Bihar consider themselves as Brahmins and their brahanimcal
reclamation has been acceptable other, S.C. Dube in his study of Rajgaonds and M.S.A.
Rao is his study of Yadavs found out that all these castes were originally shudras, by
obtaining access over land, capturing power in the local community, developing
organizational character they could obtain superior caste status.
3. ARDIAN MAYER in his study of Rampheri village finds out that Jat are dominant in
economic structure, Rajputs in political structure and Brahmin in ritual structure. On the
same live Oscar Lewis in his study of Rampur village finds out that Rajput dominate in
secular sphere, so also Jats and they look down on Brahmins. So rise in secular hierarchy
is questioning to Brahmanic supremacy.
4. M.N. Srinivas writes that going for new occupation, new caste nature, preparing fictions
genealogy, going for Jati compaign, receiving support from lower caste, new legislations,
political patronage, migration in India have accomplished upward mobility. Therefore
secular mobility is not end-in-itself it fertilizes ritual mobility.So he explains caste as
dynamic social institution.

Therefore, on one hand he rejects cultural/lndological view of caste and on other he speaks
about the functions and destructions of caste mobility for which he is identified as structural
functionalist.
His views on Caste and Politics
While dwelling on concept of dominant caste. M.N. Srinivas indicates that, caste forgetting
their internal differences are associated together with common purpose and when their
interest is gratified they get dissociated He calls this coming together of castes
as Varnisation of Caste e.g.

AJAR in North India for resonation

1. M.N. Srinivas reflecting on dominate caste contradicts to the view points of Mayron
weiner and gunnor Myrdal who believed that constitution, modern education, rural
development programmes, rise of case free employment and process of
democratization will lead to decline of ‘Caste India’ and rise of modern India stratified
on class lives. Contradicting to his argument he advocates that more India is becoming
modern have maximum control over the benefits of progressive modernity. Therefore
old identities are used expanded for gratification of contemporary interest This he calls
as the growing secular role of caste and decline of ritual role of caste so, caste role,
caste composition all are changing, but still caste is not replaced by class in India.
2. Marxist sociologists like Yogesh Atal, Ghanshyam Shah calls this as classification of caste
indicating that dominant caste is not a caste or combination of castes rather they come
together driven by common economic and political interest Therefore they are class.
3. Srinivas rejects Marxists and Modernists approach caste indicating that caste and India
have a perpetual union with each other. More the caste is becoming weaker (ritual),
more it is becoming stronger (secular) in India. Today caste is a toll for collective
mobilization to gratify secular interests. Political campaigns, caste associations are
proactive.Caste groups are going for movements/demonstrations operating as pressure
groups, whether they capture power to control the government or one empowered
staying outside the government For e.g. Recent Agitation and demands by castes like
patidars in Gujrat, Marathas in Maharashtra, Jats in Haryana.
4. T.K. Oomen took further Srinivas’s discussion. Where he explained caste operating
as ‘power reservoir’ while caste leaders emerging as ‘power exercisers’. He considers
this political mobalisation of caste led to rise of ‘caste elites’ in contemporary India.

Therefore Srinivas concept of dominant caste and his discussion on politics and caste
subsequently offered Indian sociology. The new concepts like ‘vote bank politics, AJGR,
BIMARU. Which can be identified as middle range theories as that of R.K. Marton.

LOUIS DUMONT
Dumont’s main areas of interest are social anthropology and Indology. He has written on wide
range of subjects such as Hinduism, caste, kinship and social and political movements in India.

Dumont’s perspective on caste system was primarily concerned with the ideology of the caste
system. His understanding of caste lays emphasis on attributes of caste that is why his
approach is called attributional approach to the caste system.

1. For him caste is set of relationships of economic, political and kinship systems, sustained
by certain values which are mostly religious in nature. Dumont says that caste is not a
 form of stratification but a special form of inequality whose essence has to be
deciphered by the sociologists. Here he identifies hierarchy as the essential value
underlying the caste system supported by Hinduism.
2. According to Dumont caste divides the whole Indian society into a larger number of
hereditary groups distinguished from one another and connected together by three
characteristics:
 Separation on the basis of rules of the caste in matters of marriage and contact whether
direct or indirect (food).
 Interdependent of work or division of labor each group having in theory or by tradition,
a profession from which their members can depart only within certain limits.
 Gradation of status or hierarchy which ranks the groups as relatively superior or inferior
to one another.
3. Dumont highlights the state of mind which is expressed by the emergence in various
situations of castes. He calls caste system as a system of ideas and values which is a
formal comprehensible rational system.
4. His analysis is based on a single principle-the opposition of pure and impure. This
opposition underlies hierarchy which means superiority of the pure and inferiority of
impure.
5. This principle also underlies separation which means pure and impure must be kept
separate. According to Dumont the study of the caste system is useful for the
knowledge of India and it is an important task of general sociology.
6. He focused on the need to understand the ideology of caste as reflected in the classical
texts, historical examples etc. He advocated the use of an Indological and structuralist
approach to the study of caste system and village social structure in India.
7. Dumont in his book Homo Hierarchicus has built up a model of Indian civilization based
on non-competitive ritual hierarchical system.
8. Louis Dumont was primarily concerned with the ideology of the caste system. His
understanding of caste lays emphasis on attributes of caste that is why; he is put in the
category of those following the attributional approach to the caste system. Dumont
identifies ‘hierarchy’s is the essential value underlying the caste system, supported by
Hinduism.

In Dumont views :

1. India is composed of many small territories and castes;

2. Every caste is limited to particular and definite geographic area; and
3. Marrying outside one’s own caste is not possible in the caste system.

Dumont’s Concept of Pure and Impure :

While considering the concept of pure and impure, Dumont had two questions in mind: Why is
this distinction applied to hereditary groups? And, if it accounts for the contrast between
Brahmins and untouchables, can it account equally for the division of society into a large
number of groups, themselves sometimes extremely sub divided? He did not answer these
questions directly. But, the opposite has always been two extreme categories, i.e.. Brahmin
and untouchables.

1. The Brahmins assigned with the priestly functions, occupied the top rank in the social
hierarchy and were considered ‘pure’ as compared to other castes.
 2. The untouchables, being ‘impure’, and segregated outside the village, were not allowed
to draw water from the same wells from which the Brahmins did so.
3. Besides this, they did not have any access to Hindu temples, and suffered from various
other disabilities.
4. Dumont said that this situation was somewhat changed since the Gandhian agitation
and when India attained independence. Untouchability was considered illegal; Gandhi
renamed untouchables as ‘Harijan’s or ‘Sons of Hari’, that is, creatures of God
Untouchables are specialized in ‘impure’ tasks, which lead to the attribution of a
massive and permanent impurity to some categories of people.Dumont highlights
temporary and permanent impurity.
5. In larger areas of the world, death, birth and other such seclusion of the affected
persons, for instance, the newly delivered mother was actually excluded from the
church for forty days at the end of which she would present herself carrying a lighted
candle and would be met at the church porch by the priest.
6. In India, persons affected by this kind of event are treated as impure for a prescribed
period and Indians themselves identify this impurity with that of the untouchables. In
his work. The History of Dharmashastra, P.V. Kane writes that a man’s nearest relatives
and his best friends become untouchable for him for a certain time as a result of these
events.

For the body, the main thing is the morning attention to personal hygiene, culminating in the
daily bath. Even, the objects are considered as pure and impure; silk is purer than cotton, gold
than silver, than bronze, than copper.These objects are not simply polluted by the contact but
by the use to which they are put and used by the person. Now-a-days, a new garment or vessel
can be received from anybody. It is believed that a person’s own bed garments, wife, child and
water pot are pure for his own self and family and for others they are impure.

This notion of purity and pollution is not an individual prescription, rather it is a cultural
prescription.

Dumont feels one cannot speak of the castes without mentioning the varna, to which Hindus
frequently attribute the castes themselves, India has the traditional hierarchy of varna,
‘colours’ or estates whereby four categories are distinguished :

1. The higher is or that of the Brahmins or priest, below them are the Kshatriyas or
warriors, then the Vaishyas, in modern usage merchants, and finally, the Shudras, the
servants or have-nots.
2. There is one more category, the untouchables, who are outside the classification
system.
3. Dumont maintains that many of the Indologists confuse the Varna with caste, mainly
because the classical literature is concerned almost entirely with the varnas.
4. Caste and Varna are to be understood with relationship of hierarchy and power.

In opinion of demont, ideological framework of Varna and the empirical reality of caste has not
much difference he argues that Varna is all India phenomenon, known to all and emergence
lies in cultural concept While caste is regional phenomenon, castes rise and fall because they
are born not of occupation. Caste is concerned with access to power.

Therefore he argues for study of India from Varna point of view, not hat of caste. Varna has
pan India character while caste is regional and has local origin.This dual structures evident in
India.Varna forms it’s rigid and static part So he argues for this view point According to him if
one study from caste view she/he will end up over glorifying change in society.

By his interpretation, caste was different from other forms of social stratification through the
‘disjunction’ of ritual status and secular ( political and economic) power within the same social
system. The subordination of the political and economic criteria of social stratification to that
of ritual status in Dumont’s model however, plays down the significance of social change in
colonial and contemporary times. Did caste lose its political significance as late in the 18th and
19th centuries? As for what has happening at the 20th century, although Dumont explicitly
recognized the emergence of inter-caste competitiveness in place of a structure of
independence as a departure from tradition. He regarded this as behavioural change, rather
than a radical transformation of the system as a whole, at the level of values or principles.

In the last, Dumont discusses the significant changes in the casts

1. He views that traditional interdependence of castes has been replaced by “a universe of

impenetrable blocks, self-sufficient, essential and identical and in competition in one
another.” Dumont calls this the ‘substantialization of castes’.
2. An inventory of sources of change in the caste system lists judicial and political changes,
social religious reforms, westernization, and growth of modern professionals,
urbanization, spatial mobility and the growth of market economy. But, despite all these
factors making for change; the most ubiquitous and the general form, the change has
taken in contemporary times is one of a ‘mixture’, or ‘combination’, of traditional and
modern features.

Critical Analysis

1. Nevertheless Dumont’s magnum opus remains his Homo hierarchicus published in

French in 1967 (1970 and 1972 for the English translations). It is an impressive synthetic
work with a strong theoretical background in which the author presented his
understanding of the Indian caste society as a whole. According to Dumont, people
were ascribed an unequal status from birth and ranked from the Untouchables (who did
not then call themselves Dalits) at the bottom to the Brahmins at the top according to
the degree of purity attached to each caste collectively as well as to each individual.
2. Dumont wrote ‘Home equal’s for French readers to see and compare Indian society with
their own society. He argues that Indian society is pessimistic in its nature while western
society is optimistic.There is slavish orientation to Indian culture while European culture
is liberal. Indian society is entangled by other worldly values while European society has
embraced this worldly values. Therefore Indian society lacks innovation while European
society progresses through innovation.
3. Hierarchy based on cultural notion exists in India as compared stratification based on
interest in Europe. Therefore his comparison based on ‘Homo hierarchicus’ and homo
equalis’ proposes euro centric view of Indian society.
4. After this publication, Dumont distanced himself from the sociology of India, feeling that
he had achieved what he wanted to say on the caste system. He started a new field of
research that dealt with the genesis of the modern individualism grounded on an
egalitarian basis, which he contrasted with the inegalitarian caste system. It was the
subject of his Homo aequalis (1977), followed by Essays on individualism (1983), and
German Ideology: From France to Germany and Back (1991).
 5. Dumont’s oeuvre has been discussed and debated by anthropologists in Europe as well
as in India. His sociological interpretation of the caste system is both widely acclaimed
and highly criticised Andre Beteille is ardent critic of Dumonts Eurocentric, cultural view
of Indian society. In his opinion dumont talks about India from Brahmaric, culture
specific hierarchical perspective. Where India producers hierarchy and Europe produces
stratification. Rejecting this view Andre Beteille writes that “Ideology of equality and
resistance to inequality is universal phenomenon’. In vase of Europe, Renaissance to J.S.
Mill all were speaking about ideology of equality. While in case of India, from Buddha to
Gandhi all were speaking the same. Further, He writes that “No society is absolutely
open and no society is absolutely closed Openers and closeness are matter of degree
than kind”. He questions Dumont on the basis that, caste persists in India despite
legislation, reform movement In the same way role persists in Europe despite civil rights
movement.
6. Therefore one can’t conclude that caste in India is hierarchicus and that in Europe is
stratification. With respect to traditional values, he writes that in economically
progressive Europe pope is appointed on the basis of conventional standards instead of
Merit Therefore tradition is not replaced by modernity, both in Europe and India. So
India cannot be considered as hierarchical as against egalitarian Europe. He rejects
dumont’s argument of orthodox Indian writes if India is orthodox then it would have
been be accepted Brahmanic supremacy. But movement, Buddhism, Jainism, Backward
caste movement Dalit mobilization rejects the ideas of Brahmjanic Supremacy.
7. He concludes by saying that, in every society there present a dialectical news between
idea of equality and pursuit of inequality. The most radical criticism emphasised that
Dumont’s brilliant analysis of the caste system is taken from a dominant internal
viewpoint, whether from its priests (Brahmins) or its princes (Kshatriya), which is well
expressed in and legitimised by the classical Sanskrit texts that Dumont widely used
From a sociological point of view, however, scholars need to question, first, the social
conditions of the production of these representations that cannot be taken for granted
and second their social usages.
8. The relations of power and domination that structure the Hindu caste system, which are
partly denied from a textual viewpoint (and this, of course, cannot be ignored), have to
be clearly recognised and analysed Furthermore, the comparative sociology that
Dumont developed was quite often reduced to a binary opposition between
individualism and holism, or to a radical confrontation between the equalitarian West
and the hierarchical traditional pre-modern societies, like India, towards which the
anthropologist publicly confessed to having a nostalgic inclination.
9. Nevertheless, the Indian part of his oeuvre stands for a rare coherent sociological
enterprise that cannot be ignored or brushed away if one wants to understand the
social making of contemporary India.

ANDRE BETEILLE

1. Beteille study on caste is reflexive, distinctive, dynamic and analytical, as against

Ghurye, Dumont, and Srinivas sociology of caste. Dumont considers caste as a sacred
cow driven by the universal superiority of Brahmins, dominating in ritual sphere or in
the status hereby.
2. Srinivas considers that Sanskritic behaviour or way of life is mostly solicited by ethnic
group of people in Indian society. So Dumont and Srinivas along with Ghurye,
explicitly or implicitly speak that Brahminic superiority and Sanskritic exclusivity
Andre Beteille tries to study caste beyond these perspectives.
3. According to Beteille, caste is an objective reality. Its role and structural character
should be studied from empirical perspective. His understanding of caste comes out of
the field data, collected from Sripuram village of Tanjore district of Tamil Nadu.
4. In this village three major caste groups are present Brahmins, Non-Brahmins and Adi-
Dravidians. Between Brahmins and Adi-Dravidians a huge cultural, symbolic and
relational gap is found Beteille finds out that Dumont’s Theory of hierarchy’ carries
relative significance to understand the disharmonic relationship between Brahmins
and AdiDravidians.
5. These two castes are placed in two extreme position of caste hierarchy. He
empathises with M.N Srinivas to understand the rise of non-Brahmins in the secular
sphere of caste hierarchy. Controlling village land and dominating in village, local and
state politics; these groups intensified the emergence and consolidation of dominant
caste.
6. His sociology of caste criticizes Srinivas, Dumont and Ghurye on the ground that
Brahminic exclusivity and superiority is not a matter of fact. It is evident from his study
of Sripuram. Brahmins of Sripuram are largely divided into two groups : Srivaishnav and
Samarthas, distinctively different from each other in terms of the ritual practices,
symbols, doctrinal affinity and way of life.
7. Residential areas of both the castes are also strictly different and both the groups
practice endogamy implying that a subcaste should be considered as caste. Samarthas
are further divided in 4 major groups, and these groups are further divided into sub-
groups.This study of segmentation of caste is largely influenced by the writings of his
teacher and old friend Evans Pritchard who in his study of Neurs talk about
segmentation of tribe.
8. According to Beteille, Brahmins never follow a distinctive identity, ritual pattern and
way of life. What means sanskritisation to one aspiring caste may not be meaning to
other. So Brahmins being so segmented, it is too difficult to believe that the superiority
is historic, continuous and undiluted as presumed by homes Dumont. Caste does not
determine social commensality amongst people.
9. It is evident from Samarthas divided on the basis of economic standing into three broad
groups such an upper class, middle class and lower class. Beteille finds out that caste is
not only a source of social exclusion only rather both caste and poverty are two
distinctive dissensions to social inequality in India. Exploring different genesis to social
exclusion, he concludes by saying, that social inequality in India has multiple dimensions
and caste is one of it. In his book “Caste, class and power” he finds out that non
brahmins are mostly artisan and peasant caste.
10. One these castes experience economic upliftment because of good harvest or trade and
commerce. They spend their wealth on renovation of house, sending their children for
modern education and ultimately identify themselves as ‘MUDLIIAR’ (Peasant caste) but
doesn’t want to become a Brahmin, when given a opportunity. Therefore sanskritization
is not an all Indai phenomenon. Under the influence of Dravidian movement in south
India, non-brahmin considers that secular mobility is an ‘end-initself’ which is essential
to distinguish between Brahmins originating from Aryans and Dravidians, who are “sons
of soil”.
Therefore Beteille states that

1. Caste hierarchy is a competitive hierarchy, within caste system hierarchy and

differences mutually coexist.
2. Class and caste combinedly together determines the social ranking of family. Social
commensality and marriage.
3. Social distance between Brahmins and non-brahmins which was absolutist in past is no
longer maintained due to younger generation exposure to modern education and
employment.
4. India should be studied from stratification perspective rather than caste perspective.

Economic transformation, political changes should be taken into consideration to understand

the changing nature of intra and inter caste relationship. Caste and class is not the only source
to explain all possible sources of inequality as highlighted by structural functionalist on one
hand and Marxists on other. Following the footsteps of Max Weber he indicates that
structure exists in many forms and in village India source of the structure are:

1. Unequal of distribution of land and giving rise to class structure.

2. Unequal access to power.
3. Unequal access to status on the basis of caste identity.

Based on his study, title of his first book is ‘Class Status and Power: The study of structure in a
Tanjaure
village’.

Beteille considers that Bhakti movement Backward caste movement, dalit mobilization
potentially question to hierarchical gradation of values giving rise to the emergence of plural
values competing with each other.

(Existentialism competing with spiritualism, materialism competing with moralism) resulting

in competitive values, rising in Indian society, reflecting on social change.

Andre Beteille in his book “Caste old and caste new” has collected empirical data from
different sources to conclude that during early part of 20th century, caste becomes class at
different level of social strata and it leads to power in different strata. So Europeans who saw
the early 20th century scenario concluded that Indian society is closed one characterized by
fixed hierarchy. In changing India these structural hierarchies are crumbling.
Dilution of these relationship of values is leading to shift from harmonic to disharmonic
position in social structure of Indian society. So caste should not be considered as hierarchical
system that stands constant for indefinite period It changes with changing time, therefore
Indian society should be studied from three perspectives.

1. System of hierarchical gradation.

2. Vertical ties between individuals and families.
3. Hierarchical gradation of values.

India has not gone for complete modernity as explained by Yogendra Singh and it has not
confined to absolute tradition as per Dumont. Therefore Beteille tells that caste old is replaced
by caste new than caste being replaced by class in India.
He can absence that the most brahmins whose forefathers were priest and preacher in the
villages now are working as teacher is schools and professors in colleges. Descendents of
Kashtriyas are largely seen in Army, bureaucracy and political apparatus. Vaishyas are still
dominant in trade and commerce. Shudras have gone for peripheral occupation in government
sector and industry. And untouchables are in class IV employment in government/Municipal
bodies.

Therefore occupational change is not absolutist in India. That is India followed path of selective
modernity. Thus Indian modernity is typically Indian in character, exclusive and different
from modernization of West, but some of the European suggest fail to understand So they
conclude that India provides hierarchy and European society produces structure.

Apart from this Andre Beteille in his book “Backward class and New social order” criticizes the
extension of reservation policy to other backward classes. The sociological analysis of Beteille
stands on following grounds.

1. While defining class he dwells upon weberian understanding, that is people holding
same income, occupation can be categorized as class. Generally people who lack control
over means of production identically can be said to be backward class. But in India.
OBC’s have different historically as well as differential access to income and occupation.
Therefore caste group combinedly together making a class in India. Which is
conceptually wrong and empirically incorrect.
2. He argues that today’s reservation policy banks on Vote bank politics’ mainly exercised
by progressive castes so, politics of reservation is superimposing on sociology of
reservation.

Further, He argues that today’s reservation policy is ‘anti-moratorian’. It is bringing forward

new forms of and deeper in India. Which is leading to polarization based on caste groups.

He questions the contextual justification of reservation. In his opinion, reservation offeres

compensation for historic discrimination. The people who are benefitting from reservation are
not exploited by non beneficiaries at present Therefore, giving compensation for mistakes of
past in the present time is anti-equalitarian and anti-democratic. Beteille makes distraction
between ‘Equality of opportunity’ and ‘Equal distribution of benefits’.

Therefore, he advocates for equality of opportunity in education’. Quality healthcare.

Employment to lower castes in India. Thus enjoying equal opportunities, all caste people must
compete on merit to get into occupational structure.

He concludes that identity focused polities is taking India into medieval period rather into 21st
century. He argues for an equalitarian, meritorian and democracy society where education, job
security equality health care to every citizen of country will be provided So citizenship should
destroy caste and promote equality.

ANDRE BETEILLE ON CASTE : India’s destiny not caste in stone (HINDU FEB 2012)

1. Those who try to keep up with discussions on current affairs in the newspapers and on
television maybe forgiven if they conclude that caste is India’s destiny. If there is one
thing the experts in the media who comment on political matters have in common, it is
their preoccupation with caste and the part it plays in electoral politics.
 2. Many are now coming to believe that, despite the undeniable demographic,
technological and economic changes taking place in the country, the division into castes
and communities remains the ineluctable and ineradicable feature of Indian society.
3. They also believe that to ignore those divisions or to draw attention to other divisions
such as those of income, education and occupation is to turn our backs on the ground
reality. The more radical among them add that ignoring those realities amounts to an
evasion of the political responsibility of redistributing the benefits and burdens of
society in a more just and equitable manner.
4. Does nothing changed in India? A great many things have in fact changed in the last 60
years both in our political perceptions and in the social reality. The leaders of the
nationalist movement who successfully fought for India’s freedom from colonial rule
believed that India may have been a society of castes and communities in the past but
would become a nation of citizens with the adoption of a new republican constitution.
5. They were too optimistic. The Constitution did create rights for the citizen, but it did not
eradicate caste from the hearts and minds of the citizens it created For many Indians,
and perhaps the majority, the habits of the heart are still the habits of a hierarchical
society.

Inter-dining rules

1. Universal adult franchise opened up new possibilities for mobilising electoral support on
the basis of caste and thus prevented the consciousness of caste from dying down.
Democracy was expected to efface the distinctions of caste, but its consequences have
been very different from what was expected Politics is no doubt an important part of a
nation’s life in a democracy, but it is not the only part of it There are other areas of life
in which the consciousness of caste has been dying down, though not very rapidly or
dramatically. The trends of change which I will now examine do not catch the attention
of the media because they happen over long stretches of time, in slow motion as it
were. They are not noticeable from month to month or even year to year but across two
or more generations.
2. Let us start with the ritual opposition of purity and pollution which was a cornerstone of
the hierarchical structure of caste. The rules of purity and pollution served to mark the
distinctions and gradations among castes and sub-castes. Characteristic among them
were those relating to commensality or inter-dining. They determined who could sit
together at a meal with whom, and who could accept food and water from whom. Only
castes of equivalent rank could inter-dine with each other. In general people accepted
cooked food and water from the hands of their superiors, but not their inferiors.
3. The ritual rules governing food transactions were rigid and elaborate until a hundred
years ago. Nobody can deny that there has been a steady erosion of those rules.
Modern conditions of life and work have rendered many of them obsolete. The excesses
of the rules of purity and pollution have now come to be treated with ridicule and
mockery among educated people in metropolitan cities like Kolkata and Delhi. It is
impossible to maintain such rules in a college canteen or an office lunch room. To insist
on seating people according to their caste on a public occasion would cause a scandal
today.
4. In the past, restrictions on inter-dining were closely related to restrictions on marriage
according to the rules of caste. The restrictions on marriage have not disappeared but
they have eased to some extent Among Hindus, the law imposed restrictions on inter-
caste marriage.The law has changed but the custom of marrying within the caste is still
 widely observed However, what is happening is that other considerations such as those
of education and income are also kept in mind in arranging a match. At any rate, it will
be difficult to argue that caste consciousness in matrimonial matters has been on the
rise in recent decades.

In politics, the media

1. There continues to be a general association between caste and occupation to the extent
that the lowest castes are largely concentrated in the menial and low-paying jobs
whereas the higher castes tend to be in the best-paid and most esteemed ones. But the
association between caste and occupation is now more flexible than it was in the
traditional economy of land and grain. Rapid economic growth and the expansion of the
middle class are accompanied by new opportunities for individual mobility which
further loosens the association between caste and occupation.
2. If, in spite of all this, caste is maintaining or even strengthening its hold over the public
consciousness, there has to be a reason for it That reason is to be found in the domain
of organised politics. Caste had entered the political arena even before independence,
particularly in peninsular India. But the adoption of universal adult franchise after
independence altered the character and scope of the involvement of caste in the
political process.
3. The consciousness of caste is brought to the fore at the time of elections. Elections to
the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabhas are now held all the year round For logistical and
other reasons, elections to even the Vidhan Sabhas may be stretched out over several
weeks. There are by-elections in addition to the general elections. Election campaigns
have become increasingly spectacular and increasingly costly, and they often create the
atmosphere of a carnival. The mobilisation of electoral support on the basis of caste is a
complex phenomenon whose outcome gives scope for endless speculation.
4. Even though for the country as a whole the election season never really comes to an
end the individual voter participates in the electoral process only occasionally and
sporadically. The average villager devotes far more thought and time to home, work and
worship than to electoral matters. It is well known that the voter turnout among urban
professional Indians is low. But even when they do not participate in the elections to the
extent of visiting their local polling booths, they participate in them vicariously by
following on television what happens in the outside world Television provides a large
dose of entertainment along with a modicum of political education.
5. Private television channels have created a whole world in which their anchors and the
experts who are regularly at their disposal vie with each other to bring out the
significance of the “caste factor,” meaning the rivalries and alliances among castes, sub-
castes and groups of castes by commentators who, for the most part, have little
understanding of, or interest in, long-term trends of change in the country. These
discussions create the illusion that caste is an unalterable feature of Indian society. It
will be a pity if we allow what goes on in the media to reinforce the consciousness of
caste and to persuade us that caste is India’s destiny.

Response to Andre Beitelle on this by Joseph Tharamangalam

1. Why is caste such a dominant feature of Indian social life? According to Andre Beteille,
in his article published in The Hindu (“India’a destiny not caste in stone,”) it is because
 of electoral politics and the media which keep caste alive. India’s constitution may also
have played a role.
2. While creating a nation of citizens and citizenship rights it also kept caste alive. Outside
of politics many changes, slow but steady, have transformed caste practices and caste
consciousness in such areas as inter-dining, inter-caste marriages and caste-based
occupations.
3. That the forces of modernization are associated with what sociologists call a move from
particularistic to universalistic forms of social relations is a generally accepted view and
should come as no surprise. We saw this happen in India with the coming of the
railways which simply could not provide separate coaches for different castes. So let us
grant that the changes Beteille notes are taking place with the caveat that he may be
over-stating the case.
4. The fact that the more than three lakh manual scavengers of India are almost
exclusively drawn from Dalit communities must provoke some serious thinking about
the issue. It would also be interesting to know much inter-dining and how many inter-
caste marriages have taken place in the Tamil Nadu village where Beteille did his PhD
research some six decades ago.

TO RESTRICT ACCESS

1. The problem with Beteille’s argument is that it ignores some critical dimensions of caste
that doggedly persist and perhaps underpin some India-specific features of the
country’s development path.These dimensions are sustained by a material base defined
by vastly different control over resources and the means of coercion.
2. These are now deployed not so much to enforce rules of purity/pollution, but to restrict
access to vast numbers of Dalits and Other Backward Classses (OBC) to resources and
opportunities old and new. The politics of caste cannot be understood if seen outside
this context and delinked from these realities.

SOCIAL INDICATORS

1. A widely noted paradox about India’s development can shed some light on the endemic
deprivations suffered by the lower castes. Despite its high growth India fares very poorly
in almost all measures of social indicators provided by major international and Indian
organisations (e.g., the Human Development Index or HDI, the Multiple Poverty Index or
MPI, the Global Hunger Index or GHI) in comparison with developing countries at the
same or even lower levels of economic growth and per capita GDP.
2. Its low HDI ranking (119 in a list of 169 in 2010 — compared with China’s 89) is
attributable to its exceptionally low indicators of basic education and health. It ranks
particularly low in such measures as Infant Mortality Rates, malnutrition, underweight
and stunted children and pregnant women who are underweight and anaemic.
3. Even more scandalous is India’s ranking in the GHI with a ranking of 66 out of, below
even its south Asian neighbours except Bangladesh; the country is home to the single
largest pool of hungry people in the world, 255 million who make up 21 per cent of its
population. The MPI provides a similar scenario; 455 million making up 55 per cent of
the population, are MPI poor and eight Indian states contain more MPI poor people
than 26 of the poorest African countries combined.
4. Behind these figures are two significant facts about Indian society: first the country has
an unusually large underclass, and second prominently figured in this class are the lower
 castes (especially the Dalits) and the Scheduled tribes. In all the relevant social indictors
the figures are considerably worse (difference of 10 per cent or more) for these groups.
For example, while 55 per cent of Indians are MPI poor the figures for SCs and STs are
65.8 and 81.4 respectively. Note also that the worst performing states are generally the
ones with high proportions of SCs and STs.

SYSTEM OF VIOLENCE

1. The abysmal socio-economic condition of the lower castes is not a random occurrence
but is embedded in historically inherited structures that have resisted radical change.
India’s historical failures — aborted land redistribution, neglected agriculture (except
during the Green Revolution period of thel960s-70s) and a soft approach in attacking
caste iniquities — have helped to maintain these structures.
2. In this context it is interesting to look at another enigma in India’s trajectory, its very
poor record in primary education (e.g. in contrast to East Asia) during the same period
when it made great strides in scientific, technical and other forms of higher education
spawning the now famous Indian middle class. One explanation for this massive failure
is that early planners pursued a misguided view that it was the latter forms of education
that India needed for rapid economic development.
3. But there is another explanation in which caste figures as a factor.A benign version of
this view is that upper caste Indians, following their habits of the hearts, simply did not
see the merit of educating the lower castes.
4. A less benign version argues that the project of educating the low castes may have met
with resistance from the upper castes who feared that such a project and consequent
upward mobility of the lower castes would jeopardise the control and management of
their low caste workers, dependents and servants. Having done fieldwork in rural Bihar
and observed such dynamics at work, I see some merit in this last argument.
5. Finally, it is important to note that this structure is maintained not just by ideology and
pollution rules but also by considerable violence. It is indeed a system of structural
violence manifested by constant threats and periodic outbursts of physical violence
employed by land owing upper castes threatened by changes in established
relationships and also by the lower castes who dare to resist or retaliate.
6. ‘Atrocities against Dalits” — ranging from murder, rape and arson to such humiliating
practices as parading Dalit women naked in the village and making the victims consume
human excreta, are reasonably well documented India’s parliamentarians regarded
these as serious enough to enact the “Atrocities against Dalit Act” in 1989. While the
effectiveness of the act is disputed Dalit activists insist that the act cannot be
implemented without political pressure from below.
7. In the wake of recent patterns of economic growth that are further marginalising rural
dwellers and agricultural labourers, concerned activists and scholars such as Amartya
Sen (whose famous studies on Indian famines have noted the disproportionately high
numbers of Dalits victims in Indian famines) have called for the building of
“countervailing power” through better political organization of underprivileged groups.
8. What, then can we make of Beteille’s suggestion that caste would simply have
disappeared if only it had been kept out of the domains of politics and the media? To be
sure, he has an important case about the misuse of caste by self-serving politicians and
media persons. But the prescription for depoliticisation of caste is surely a non-starter.
9. Perhaps a better route would be the one traversed by Kerala where the political
mobilisation of the lower castes was integrated into broader rational-legal and
 universalistic forms of organisations across caste, community and religion into modern
forms of trade unions and parties.
10. Yes, we have abolished untouchability, the need today is to abolish the material base of
the system that sustained untouchability, now spawning newer forms of discrimination
and violence.

Another reaction on Andre Beitelle’s article

An internal code, culture and values make a caste special to its members.

1. What explains the persistence of caste consciousness in our politics? Andre Beteille
explores this in his piece in The Hindu *India’s destiny not caste in stone,February 21,
2012). Beteille’s argument is structured thus:
2. Media experts are preoccupied with caste and its role in politics. Divisions of income,
education and occupation are ignored and caste alone is stressed
3. Beteille says in 60 years a great many things have changed. These are things that change
over generations, and so don’t interest the media. People dine with one another now.
To insist on these rules of ritual purity in the age of the college canteen, he says, would
cause a scandal. The “custom of marrying within the caste is still widely observed’ he
accepts, but adds “it will be difficult to argue that caste consciousness in matrimonial
matters has been on the rise in recent decades.”
4. To him such things indicate the steady dying out of caste consciousness in matters
outside politics. So then what explains the persistence of caste in politics? Beteille
says: “The consciousness of caste is brought forward to the fore at the time of
elections.” How? “Private television channels have created a whole world in which their
anchors and the experts who are regularly at their disposal vie with each other to bring
out the significance of the ‘caste factor’.”
5. Let us agree with Beteille that caste is not India’s destiny. But let us also examine why it
persists in our politics if it’s dying out elsewhere as he claims it is. The Constitution
created rights, Beteille says, but could not eradicate caste from the hearts of its citizens:
“For many Indians, and perhaps the majority, the habits of the heart are still the habits
of a hierarchical society.”Adult franchise opened up the possibility of mobilising
electoral support on the basis of caste, but outside politics “the consciousness of caste
has been dying down, though not very rapidly or dramatically.”
6. In showing changes in society, Beteille refers to such things as pollution and inter-
dining. That is to say, in interactions members of caste A have with members of caste B.
This is the prescriptive aspect of caste. The Constitution skewers it through Articles15,
16 and 17, but it was dying even a century ago. The Sanatani Gandhi does only
perfunctory penance for sailing to England (and so losing his caste),and promptly sails
off again, to South Africa.
7. The prescriptive aspect is eroded easily by modernity because it is prejudice and
superstition. Adherence brings little benefit It erodes also because, as Beteille says,
urban life brings proximity, in the college canteen and the city bus, where such rules are
not easy to follow.
8. Is this aspect of caste, the one that is dying out, what produces caste division in politics?
Is it why people cleave to their caste when they vote?
9. No. The reason for the persistence of caste in politics is something entirely different
 10. It has to do with the internal code of the caste, its positive aspects, its culture. What
makes it special, according to its members, and distinguishes it from the other
castes.This aspect erodes more slowly, if it erodes at all because it is felt
11. Two quick examples will illustrate what is meant Let us look at the castes of the 10
richest people in India, according to Forbes magazine: Lakshmi Mittal (Baniya), Mukesh
Ambani (Baniya), Azim Premji (Lohana), Ruia brothers (Baniya), Savitri Jindal (Baniya),
Gautam Adani (Baniya), K.M. Birla (Baniya), Anil Ambani (Baniya), Sunil Mittal (Baniya),
Adi Godrej (Parsi).
12. Nine of the 10 are from mercantile castes, including the only Muslim. The break up as
we go further down the list is diluted somewhat in favour of the other castes, but not by
much. Even first generation billionaires, for instance Adani, the Ruias and Sunil Mittal or
Uday Kotak (Lohana), tend to come from mercantile castes. Wealthy Muslims like Premji
or Khorakiwala (Lohana) also tend to follow this pattern. It is not easy to find many
Indians of non-mercantile castes who run businesses of scale.
13. The Baniya is convinced that his ability to raise and manage capital is demonstrably
superior to that of the rest. He sees this as a result of his caste’s culture, which stresses
the ability to set aside honour, to compromise.

HONOUR KILLING

1. Now let us look at honour killing. Murdering their daughters for honour is almost
exclusively done by the peasant castes of north India, especially the Jats of Haryana and
Punjab. What is honour killing? Honour is bestowed on us by others. We cannot honour
ourselves. Honour killing is successful only when his caste accepts that the Jat has
redeemed his honour by murdering his disobedient daughter.
2. The Jat receives from his caste’s values the ability to be rigid about honour, to not
compromise. This distinguishes his caste, and he takes pride in it Baniyas don’t do
honour killing because their community gives them no honour for killing their
daughters. The division will not be papered over by modernity.
3. This explains Beteille’s marriage problem. Castes inter-dine but don’t inter-marry
much.Why not? Not for fear of pollution, but because of a positive attraction towards
people with the same values, which emanate from caste.
4. This is also the aspect of caste that drives people to vote for their own kind Whether or
not the media emphasise this is unimportant The fact is that the Indian votes
confessionally. For him or her, merit comes from caste values. This condition may not
be forever unalterable, as Beteille points out But it is also evident that modernity by
itself has thus far not dented it as it has the prescriptive aspect of caste, the one Beteille
focuses on to make his argument.
5. “The average villager devotes far more thought and time to home, work and worship
than to electoral matters,” says Beteille. If he means to say that this takes him or her
away from caste, he’s wrong. Home, work and worship are precisely where caste is
embedded most powerfully, and the reason why caste consciousness persists in
2012.Voting is only an extension of this consciousness that has, in fact, not changed that
much.
6. Perhaps it will change in 100 years. But even if it does it won’t be because news
channels have stopped talking about it during elections.
Andre Beitelle’s Reponse

1. “It is not my argument that the consciousness of caste is dying out and will cease to
exist in the next 50 or even the next 100 years. But the growth and expansion of a new
middle class, attendant on demographic, technological and economic changes is altering
the operation of caste.
2. “Life chances are very unequally distributed in India.The reproduction of inequality is
afact But individual mobility is also a fact. The two tendencies operate simultaneously.
When we see how well people who start with certain advantages at birth preserve
those advantages, we tend to ignore examples of downward mobility.
3. But downward mobility does take place in a rapidly changing society as well as upward
mobility. There are people from various castes moving into superior non-manual
occupations. There are also people from peasant and artisan castes moving into
business, and occasionally succeeding in it As an example of this kind of movement, I
may refer to Harish Damodaran’s book India’s New Capitalists (New Delhi: Permanent
Black 2008).”

Ambedkar on Caste

1. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar drew attention to the rigidity of the caste system and its essential
features. The principle of graded inequality as a fundamental principal is beyond
controversy. He said the four classes are not only different but also unequal in status,
one stand above the other or equal ability as the basis of reward for labour. It favours
the distribution of the good things of life among those who are reckoned as the highest
in the social hierarchy.
2. The second principle on which the Hindu social order is founded is that of prescribed
graded occupations that are inherited from father to son for each class.The third feature
of the Hindu social order according to Ambedkar is the confinement of interaction of
people to their respective classes. In the Hindu social order there is restriction on inter-
dining and inter-marriages between people of different classes.
3. Moreover he says that there is nothing strange that Hindu social order is based on
classes. There are classes everywhere. No society exists without them even a free social
order will not be able to get rid of the classes completely. A free social order, However,
aims to present isolation and exclusiveness because both make the members of the
class inimical towards one another.

Genesis of Caste System in India

1. After review of definitions of castes given by different social scientist,Ambedkar

emphasizes that most scholars have defined caste as an isolated unit Ambedkar
analyses only those elements from the definitions of castes which he regards peculiar
and of universal occurrence. For senart, the “idea of pollution” was characteristic of
caste. Ambedkar refutes this by arguing that by no means it is peculiar to caste.
2. It usually originates in priestly ceremonialism and in the general belief in purity. It
connection with caste as an essential element may be ruled out because even without is
caste system operates. He concludes idea of pollution is associated and it is the priestly
caste, which enjoys the highest rank in the caste hierarchy.
3. Ambedkar identified the absence of dining with those outside one’s own caste as one of
the characteristics in Nesfield’s definition of caste. He points out that nesfield had
 mistaken the effect for the cause. Absence of inter-dining is effect of caste system and
not its cause.
4. Further, Ketkar defines a caste in its relation to a system of castes, ketkar identified two
characteristics of caste, (a) Prohibition of inter-marriage and (b) membership by
outogeny (by birth). Ambedkar argues that these two aspects are not different because
if marriage is prohibited, the result is that membership is limited to those born within
the group.
5. After Critical evaluation of the various characteristics of caste, Ambedkar infers that
prohibition or rather absence of inter-marriage between people of different castes is
the only element that can be considered as the critical element of caste. Among the
Hindus, castes are endogamous while gotras within a particular caste are exogamous.
There are strict rules and rigorous penalties for this. It is understandable that exogamy
cannot be prescribed at the level of caste, for then caste, as a definite, identifiable until
would cease to exist.
6. Further, Ambedkar says that, preventing marriages out of the group creates a problem
from with the group. Which is not easy to solve. The problem is that the number of
individuals of either sex is more or less evenly distributed in a normal group and they
are of similar age.
7. if a group desires to consolidate its identity as a caste then it has to maintain a strict
balance in the number of persons belonging to either sex. Ambedkar concludes that the
problem of caste, then, ultimately resolves itself into one of repairing disparity between
the marriageable units of the two sexes within it.
8. What naturally happens is that there is a ‘surplus’ and if a woman dies her husband is
surplus. If group does not take care of this surplus ‘population, it can easily break the
law of endogamy. Ambedkar argues that there are two ways in which the problem
‘surplus woman’ is resolved in society. ‘Surplus’ women may either be burnt on the
funeral pyre of their husbands or strict rules of endogamy may be imposed on them.
Since burning of women cannot be encouraged in society, widowhood bringing with it
prohibition of re-marriage is imposed on them.
9. As far as problem of ‘Surplus men’ is concerned Ambedkar says that men have
dominated the society since centuries and have enjoyed greater prestige than women.
The same treatment therefore, cannot be accorded to them.
10. Given the sexual desire that is natural he is a threat to the morals of the group
particularly if he leads an active social life and not as a recluse. He has to be therefore,
allowed to marry second time with a woman who is not previously married. This is,
however, a difficult preposition. If a widower is provided a second woman, then an
inbalance in the number of women of marriageable age is created A ‘surplus man can
therefore, be provided wife who has not yet reached marriageable age i.e. a minor girl.
11. Ambedkar identifies four means by which numerical disparity between two sexes can be
dealt with, burning of widow with her deceased husband; compulsory widowhood;
imposition of celibacy on the widower; and wedding of the widower to a girl who has
not yet attained marriageable age.
12. In Hindu society, the customs of sati, prohibition of widow remarriage and marriage of
minor girls are practiced A widower may also observe ‘sanyasa’. These practices take
care of the maintenance of numerical balance between both sexes, born out of
endogamy.
13. For Ambedkar question of origin and spread of case are not separated Ambedkar
refutes the notion that the law of caste was given by some law giver. Manu is
 considered to be the law-giver of Hindus; but at the out set there is doubt whether he
ever existed Even if existed the caste system predates Manu.
14. No doubt Manu upheld it and philosophized about it, but he certainly did not and could
not ordain the present order of Hindu society. Ambedkar also rejects the argument that
the Brahmin created caste. He maintains that still there is strong belief in the minds of
orthodox Hindus that caste society is consciously created in the shastras.It may be
noted that the teaching and preaching of shastras or the sacred texts is the prerogative
of the Brahmins. So their hand in creation of such belief is the reason for Ambedkar’s
rejection of Shastras as originator.
15. Instead he agrees with argument that some law of social growth peculiar to Indian
people about the spread of caste system. According to western scholars, the bases of
origin of various caste in India are occupation, survival of tribal organizations, the rise of
new belief system, crossbreeding and migration.
16. But according to Ambedkar, problem was in such generalization. He argues that the
aforesaid nucfeai also exist in other societies and are not peculiar to India. Why then
they did not form caste in other parts of planet? At some stage priestly class detached
itself from rest of the body of people and emerged as caste by itself. The other classes
that were subject to the law of social division of labour under went differentiation.
17. According to Amedkar, “This sub-division of society is quite natural. But the unnatural
thing about these sub-divisions is that they have lost the open-door character of the
class system and have become self enclosed units called castes.
18. The question is : were they compelled to close their doors and become endogamous, or
did they close them of their accord? Here Ambedkar submit that there is a double line
of answer: some closed their door; others found it closed against them. The one is
psychological and other is mechanistic, but they are complementary’.
19. Explaining the psychological interpretation of endogamy. Ambedkar opined that
endogamy was popular in the Hindu society.
20. Since it has originated from the Brahmin caste it was whole-heartedly initiated by all the
non brahmin class who in turn became endogamous castes, for that he quote Gabrit
tarde’s law of initiation, According to trade,”initiation flows from higher to
lower”.Secondly”the intensity of imitation varies inversely in proportion to the distance.
Distance is understood here is its sociological meaning.
21. Ambedkar argues that crucial conditions for the imitation existed in Hindu society. He
feels that, (i) The source of imitation must enjoy prestige in the group, (ii) that there
must be numerous and daily relations among members of group. Ambedkar opined that
Brahmin is treated as next to God in Indian society. He is idolized by scripture.
22. So such a worthy creature is obvious choice for initiation by others. He argues that the
imitation of non-brahmin of those customs which supported the structure of caste in its
nascent days until it become embedded in the Hindu mind and persists even today.
23. The custom of sati, enforced widowhood and girl marriage are followed in one or the
other way by different castes, he opines that those caste that are nearest to the
Brahmin have imitated all the three customs. And those that are less near have imitated
enforced widowhood and girl marriage; others little further off, have only girl marriage
and those furthest of have imitated only the belief in the case principle.
Caste and division of labour

1. Ambedkar syas that the caste system assigns task to individual on the basis of the social
status of the parents. From another perspective, this stratification of occupations that is
the result of the caste system is positively pernicious.
2. Industry is never static.It undergoes rapid and abrupt change. With sich changes an
individual must be free to change his occupation. Without such freedom, it would be
impossible to earn livelihood in changing circumstances. Therefore, caste becomes
cause of mush of the unemployment in the country. Furthermore, the caste system is
based on dogma of predestination.
3. Consideration of social efficiency would compel us to recognize that the greatest evil in
the industrial system is not so much poverty and suffering that it involves as the fact
that so many people have calling that hold no appeal to them. Such calling constantly
evoke aversion for those who are engaged in them. Given the want to give them up,
what efficiency can here be in system under which neither people’s heart nor their
minds are in their work?

Socialists and Caste System

1. Ambedkar further analyses the step taken by the socialists to annihilate caste system
through economic development and reform. He questions the socialistic view point that
economic power is the only kind of power that one can exercise effectively over others.
He argues that religion, social status and property are all sources of power and authority
that come in to play in different situation. He feels that without bringing refer in social
order on cannot bring about economic change.
2. He cautioned socialists that proletariat or the poor do not constitute a homogenous
category. They are divided not only on the basis of other economic situation but also on
the basis of caste and creed. That is why he calls it not only division of labour and
division of labourers.
3. He says that men will not join in a revolution for the equalization of property unless
they know that after the revolution is achieved they will be treated equally and that
there will be no discrimination of caste and creed. The assurance must be proceeding
from much deeper foundation, namely the mental attitude of compatriots towards one
another in their spirit of personal equality and fraternity. The elimination of caste
through economic reform is not tenable hence socialists would have to deal with
hierarchy in a caste first before effecting economic change.

Annihilation of Caste

1. Ambedkar explains that caste is notion; it is a state of the mind If someone has to break
the caste system, he/she has to attack the sacredness and divinity of the caste. So real
way to annihilate the caste system is to destroy belief in sanctity of shastras. He feels
that reformer working for the removed of untouchability including Mahatma Gandhi, do
not seen to realize that the acts of the people are merely the results of their beliefs
inculcated upon their minds by the shastras and that people will not change their
conduct until they cease to believe in the sanctity of the shastras on which their conduct
is founded.
2. Caste system has two aspects, it divides men in to separate communities; and it places
he communities in a grated order are above the other. This gradation makes it
 impossible to organize a common front against the caste system. It is therefore, not
possible to organize a mobalization of the Hindus.
3. Appeal to reason to annihilate caste is fruitless as Ambedkar quotes Manu “so far as
caste and Varna are concerned not only the shastras do not permit the Hindu to use his
reason in the decision of the question, but they have taken care to see that no occasion
is left to examine in a rational way the foundation of his belief in caste and Varna”.
Ambedkar argues that if one wanted to dismantle the castes system then one would
have to implement laws to change the caste system. Following reforms within the Hindu
religion has to be implemented.
 There should be one and only one standard book of Hindu religion, acceptable to all
Hindus and recognized by all Hindus.
 It would be appropriate if priesthood among Hindus was abolished failing which the
priesthood should at least cease to be hereditary. Every person who professes to be
Hindu must be eligible for the position of a priest Law should ensure that no Hindu
performs rituals as priest unless he has passed an examination prescribed by the state
and holds a permission from the state to practice.
 No ceremony performed by a priest who does not permission would be deemed to be
valid in law.
 A priest should be servant of the state and should be subject to the disciplinary action
by the state in the matter of his morals, beliefs.
 Number of priest should be limited by law according to requirements of the state. These
according to Ambedkar, would provide the basis for establishment of a new social order
based on liberty, equality and fraternity, in short, with democracy. He looked forward to
a society based on liberty, equality and fraternity. Fraternity creates more channels for
association and sharing experiences. This helps in established on attitude of respect and
reverence among individual towards fellowmen.

Features of the Caste System

The institution of caste represents the entire system by which the whole society is organized
into different groups their interrelationships are determined division of labor and exchange of
goods and services are carried on the social roles and obligations of the individuals are
prescribed. Risley defined caste as a collection of families or group of families bearing a
common name claiming a common descent from a mythical ancestor, human or divine,
professing to follow the same hereditary calling and forming a single homogeneous
community. According to M.N Srinivas the features of caste prevailing through the past
centuries may be described under 9 heads: hierarchy, restriction on food drink and smoking;
distinction in custom, dress and speech; pollution, ritual and other privileges and disabilities;
caste organization and caste mobility.

1. Hierarchical division of society– Caste brings an element of hierarchy in society by

dividing it into different strata, Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Sudra on the basis of
relative ritual purity. These major groups are again subdivided into a number of small
groups which are also graded into various positions in terms of high or low. According to
Bottomore in modern India there are perhaps some 2500 jatis in each major region.
Ghurye also finds that in each linguistic region there are about 200 caste groups which
are further subdivided into about 3000 smaller units each of which is endogamous and
constitutes the area of effective social life for the individual.
 2. Division of labour – There is division of labour because of caste system. Every caste has
a particular occupation attached to it Ghurye said many castes might have left their
traditional occupation but that division was there all along with them. However
Deepankar Gupta has criticized Ghurye and even those British scholars who said that
division of labour was source of the origin of caste system. Gupta said, the division of
labour doesn’t emerge from the different occupations and skills possessed by different
caste. Rather this is because of enforced and imposed division by the powerful people.
3. Hereditary – Each caste is a hereditary group. The membership of the caste is confined
to those who are born into it by an endogamous marriage relation. The status of an
individual is determined by virtue of his birth. Each caste has a traditional occupation
and all the members strictly follow this occupation to earn their livelihood.
4. Endogamy – Every caste is an endogamous group. This endogamous character is
maintained by the rules and regulation of marriage. Some of the scientists from calcutta
genomics institute have pointed out that caste endogamy started in Gupta period
probably from 5th centuryAD. However gotra exogamy is maintained in each caste.
Every caste is subdivided into different small units on the basis of gotra.The members of
one gotra are believed to be successors of a common ancestor-hence prohibition of
marriage within the same gotra.
5. Unique culture – Ghurye says that castes are small and complete social worlds in
themselves marked differently from one another though subsisting within the larger
society. Every caste has a distinct culture, traditions and customs which distinguish it
from those of the other groups.The behavioral pattern, food habits etc is prescribed by
the caste rules.
 According to R.K. Mukherjee, Upper castes in Bengal are called as ‘Bhadralok’ /
gentlemen and lower castes are called ‘chotolok’/lower people.
 Also in Gujrat some people are called brown and black people, there is even in other
parts of India, distinctions of social interactions.
6. Closed group – Endogamy, unique culture and heredity combined together to make
caste a closed group. No person can enter into a particular caste except by birth.Srinivas
talks about process of Sanskritisation which takes place with in Indian society.
7. Organization – Every caste has its own organizational structure known as caste
panchayat which lays down rules and regulations that have to be obeyed by the
members of that caste. The internal differences and conflicts are settled in the caste
panchayat which serves as a judicial system.Socially every caste group is an autonomous
body having judiciary, executive and financial power of its own which it exercises over
the members of that caste in the interests of the caste as a whole.
8. Rights and Privileges – These vary from caste to caste. Generally the Brahmins enjoy
the most privileged position and have extensive rights which they can exercise over the
members of other castes. They have a dominant position in social, political and
economic fields of rural life. Such rights and privileges decrease as one descends the
caste hierarchy.

Caste and Migration

1. Caste plays an equally important role as a source of migration. The most important
feature is caste system that is an important aspect of social stratification. It is a closed
endogamous social group in which social position is hierarchically arranged and ascribed
2. The patterns of landownership and the distribution of occupational and educational
opportunities remain very closely lined with caste groupings in India. As a result
 different caste groups have different degrees of access to economic, social and cultural
resources. The caste system by its normative order differentiates various segments
within and between the castes.
3. The hierarchical and localized nature of caste system, the rigidity of its rules, the strict
adherence to them and the attachment to caste and its close knit boundaries tend to
hamper spatial mobility but at the same time the caste system pushes the process of
migration through the presence of a social basis of economic inequality and conflict.
4. The system of caste is root cause of differential values being attached to different
castes, discrimination and tensions between the castes, differential resource
distribution based on caste, consequent caste based categories such as landed
privileged and affluent on the one hand and the landless, deprived and the poor on the
other and the exploitative social forms of relationship among the consequent
categories. All these are very closely linked with caste based migration.
5. There are some studies that have shown the impact of caste on migration. They reveal
that caste has a different effect on migration because different caste groups perceive
migration differently and take decisions to move out accordingly.Their perceptions and
motives of migration are regulated by the caste based socio-economic inequalities. For
example if the caste position varies the perceptions and motives of migration also vary
accordingly.
6. Since social caste and economic class inequalities co-exist there is both the caste and
class selectivity in migration. The study of Rajasthan villages by Kothari shows that the
propensity to migrate is high in upper and lower caste groups. This is confirmed by
Yadav sstudy done in 1989 on the rural-urban migration in India.
7. The rate of migration varies by caste background; the economic status the caste and the
role performed by the caste in the caste based social hierarchy. The relationship
between caste and migration is complex and the available evidence in this respect is not
conclusive.
8. The traditional caste system is breaking but caste survives as an ethnic unit and affects
various aspects of life.

Changes in Caste System

Caste in India has neither disintegrated nor it has weekend. It has simply changed because of
modernization, democracy, industry, urbanization, nation building and migration.

There have been many changes

1. The ritual aspect of caste or the religious aspects of caste has weekend Signs and
symbols attached to caste system are no longer visible.
2. Hierarchy of the caste system has changed In legal terms no caste can declare itself to
be superior and one cannot call others inferior. In reality also as the empirical studies
have pointed out that upper backward castes have become dominant castes in many
areas.
3. There is no longer a division of labour as existed before, on the caste lives. Deepankar
Gupta says, even in earlier times it was imposed from above. Today, upper caste have
taken to all the occupations. The Dalits also have changed their occupation. Jodhka,
Sukhadeo thorat, satish Deshpandy, Amita Baviskar after their studies said that among
Dalits the division of labour still persistent This points out to change with continutly of
tradition.
 4. Untouchability has weekend and there is great awareness even among the upper caste
not to practice it However, caste atrocities are still prevalent Honour killing is one such
example. Vivek Kumar said that there is less resistance to inter-caste marriages and
there is more self choice marriages among all the castes. But the claim is more of
baseless without empirical data. Rajni Kotheri has discussed more of the modernizing
changes and political changes in the caste system.

According to Kotheri, there has been politicization of caste. He argues that “Politics needs
caste as much as caste needs politics”. Caste group have become political groups. He wrote
book “Caste and politics in India”. Where he argues that caste has become an interest group
and pressure group. It has organized itself to realize the economic and social interests. While
M.N. Srinivas and Beteille argues that caste based reservation has given it new life. On other
hand Kothari says this has been a political demand. It has democratized the caste system.

The transition of caste from system to identity

Now it has been accepted that caste has changed from system to identity. This means it is not
a collection of castes integrated together with one or two castes at the top and some castes
ate the bottom. G.S.Ghurye and Luis Dumont had said that caste is a system defined by
hierarchy and notion of purity and pollution.

1. This system indicates, all the castes are integrated and some are at the top and other
are at bottom.
2. System indicates there is occupational division which is complementary to each other.
3. System indicates, there is unequal distributions of privilege and they work as unequal
units.
4. System indicates, they have reciprocity among themselves.
5. It also indicates everybody is in need of everybody else.

Now, there is consensus among sociologists that caste has transformed from system to
identity. K.L.Sharma argued that Britishers strengthened caste system. But in present time
castes work as units. Srinivas in 1999 wrote an essay, “An obituary to caste system”. By which
he meant no longer caste system exists but castes do-exists. Andre Beteille in his presidential
address to sociology association said that caste has transformed into identity and
consciousness. The transformation into identity and consciousness. The transformation of
caste into identity has not weekened caste.

Identity as a concept has the notion that the group or the person is conscious of his own self
and regards his importance. Every caste is now trying, marriage, social interaction, politics and
political mobilization. On the other hand class is the basis of state and politics, economic
policies and budget preparation etc. That way class is more important. In India in future of
caste is not going to end Since it acts as a support system and medium of political mobilization.
It would remain but its forms may change.

Untouchability – Forms and Perspectives

Untouchability in India goes back to hoary past, though its origin and practice remain vague
or unknown. Till the early 1930s, the de jure definition of the depressed classes, as they were
then known, was in terms of the religious concept of pollution. The depressed classes were
defined as “Hindu castes, contact with whom entails purification on the part of high-caste
Hindus”. In 1851 census, the Census Commissioner J.H. Hutton adopted several criteria to be
employed for identifying the depressed classes. These criteria did not work welL Therefore,
some adjustments were made before the promulgation of the schedule in 1935.

Though our Constitution outlawed the practice of untouchability and the Untouchability
(Offences) Act of 1955 declared it as a legal offence, yet since Hindus are still deeply steeped in
their concern for purity and pollution, the practice of untouchability has not been completely
uprooted in the social and religious life of the country. Thus, untouchability may be
understood from two angles :

1. The stigma attached to certain people because of ceremonial pollution they allegedly
convey and
2. The set- practice engaged in the rest of the society to protect itself from the pollution
conveyed by the untouchables.

The social stigma of the untouchables manifests itself in all walks of life. They are denied
access to temples and to the services of the Brahmins and are shunned by the higher castes.
They are born as impure and live as impure. The rest of the society is so much concerned about
purity that they permanently keep untouchables in a state of economic, social and political
subordination. The stigma, congenital according to one’s caste, lasts for a lifetime and cannot
be eliminated by rite or deed. Defined in relation to behaviour, untouchability refers to the set
of practices followed by the rest of society to protect itself from the pollution conveyed by the
untouchables. However, this concern with ritual pollution is not limited to the role of
untouchables; it also served to keep the untouchables in an inferior economic and political
position through physical separation. It is generally believed that the untouchable groups have
come to realize that their problem can be solved only through effective political action. In
recent times, due to reservation of posts in Parliament,Vidhan Sabhas, jobs educational
institutions, etc., and other privileges granted by the government, a low ritual-status man has a
better chance to achieve high economic and political status while high social status becomes
an individual matter.Sociologists like L.P.Vidyarthi, Sachchidananda, etc. have attempted to
study social transformation of dalits with reference to the caste disabilities, their educational
efforts, acceptance of innovations, political consciousness, integration with the larger society,
level or aspiration ,internalization of modern values, position of women, their leadership, dalit
movements and so on.

Though many dalits have given up their traditional caste-based occupations yet a good
number is still engaged in polluting occupations. The change and diversification from polluting
occupations has not only moved the stigma of their untouchability but has also enabled many
to rise in class mobility. Some of them are owners of landed and household properties.They
have been beneficiaries of various economic benefits of properties.They have been
beneficiaries of various economic benefits offered to the scheduled castes by the government
The status disabilities now largely confined to the village discriminations in the matter of using
the public wells or the temples are not as widespread as before. High public servants and those
who occupy higher position are less subject to disabilities in social intercourse. There now
exists a direct correlation between the politico-economic status of an individual and his social
status. In some cases, however, their ascriptive status scores over their achieved status, for
example, in the field of marriage, the entry of a Harijan in modern profession like medicine,
engineering, administration, colleges. This is partly because of the stereotyped hatred and
partly because of competition and jealously on account of protective discrimination in their
favour. Even the Harijan elite studied by Sachidan and in Bihar in 1976 pointed out such
jealousy.

A large number of Harijans suffer from an inbred inferiority complex which makes them
sensitive to any treatment which they think smacks of discrimination. This does not mean that
such alleged discrimination is always made and accusation is true. The immobility of the
Harijans has also given place to mobility. This has been made possible by migration from rural
to urban areas, education and entry in public services and in politics. All this points out how
the structural distance between the dalits and others has considerably narrowed.

Dalits are a marginal group in rural India, both in economic sense and in view of low-status
members of Hindu society. The two features observed about dalits in rural society are :

1. Most dalits do not own land nor are they tenants, and
2. Most dalits earn an important part of their income by working on the land of others
and/or by attaching themselves to landholding cultivators.

The employment of the dalit labour is determined by agricultural product and wages paid The
higher demand is at the time of harvest The demand for the labour increase when there is
more cultivable land, more irrigation, more fertilizers and more capital. Modern agricultural
implements like tractors, etc., increase the demand for skilled labourers but decrease the
number of persons needed The employer (landlord) gets labour from dalits as well as non-
dalits. The labour, thus, is not homogeneous. Preference is always given to non-dalits as they
are considered more hardworking. It is for this reason that the dalit in rural areas is referred to
as ‘marginal’.

PERSPECTIVES

1. Gandhian perspective to untouchability is reformistic. He believed that untouchability

is a crime against God and humanity. Being a true humanist, he believed that every
human is a child of god; everyone is equal in the eyes of God The value of equality is
cherished in Hindu Dharmashastra.
 Gandhi believed that untouchability is a product of aggressive caste system driven by
the principles of individualism and materialism. He appreciated Varna system because it
is giving way to hereditary learning of occupation without conceptualizing any
occupation is superior or inferior. Gandhi speaks about division of labour dealing to self-
sufficiency in society, neutral-occupation among the people and harmony of persistent
in collective life. He teaches self- discipline, humanism, control of materialistic needs.
 He wanted caste to perish away from India by initiating reforms that includes permitting
untouchables to enter into Hindu temples, accelerating inter-dining, encouraging higher
caste to take up the occupation of the lower caste to get a experience about the agony
of untouchables and to ensure forgetting inter caste differences and internalizing the
humanistic values of Hinduism. The Hindus of India should stand integrated.
 Gandhian approach to untouchability was no difference from SNDP movement in its
ideology. Hence starting from reform movement, to Gandhi untouchability is considered
as a culturo-historic mistake that can be addressed through reform, compassion,
providing space for integration between higher castes a lower caste (untouchables).
 Gandhian approach was contradicted by Harold Gould. He considers that socio-religious
movement of the untouchables is not a search for equality with Brahminic and
Sanskritic groups rather through this movement, untouchables of India manifested a
protest indicating, that they can imbibe Brahmanic and Sanskritic values.So equality is
not a grace for them neither a concession, rather it’s a right earned by them. So reform
is a form of protest and not a search for equality of status with Brahmins as a form of
concession or grace.
2. According to dialectical approach to untouchability, in no society, economically
empowered group ever subjected to social and cultural discrimination. It is a matter of
facts that untouchables of India were the original inhabitants of the country. They were
subjected to territorial and political aggression at different points of time, leading to
loss of land and further leading to loss of livelihood So controlling over land and
agriculture, the dominant class pushed untouchables into the village-outskirts, imposed
a ban on untouchables like ban on planting tree, milking cow, practicing agriculture etc.
This led to pathetic condition for untouchables.
 According to this approach, poverty was the prime cause of exclusion of the
untouchables of India. This was further supplemented by a new ideology offering a
cultural justification to untouchability.
 David Hardiman considers that dalit movement in India is not different from
mobilization of blacks in Europe. Both the movement is the manifestation of economic
exploitation, giving rise to other forms of exploitation.
3. Contemporary approach to untouchability largely borrows ideas from Ambedkar. He
considers that untouchability not contextual practice its intensity varies from one
situation to another. Ambedkar’s engagement with untouchability, as a researcher,
intellectual and activist, is much more nuanced hesitant but intimate as compared to his
viewpoint on caste, where he is prepared to offer stronger judgements and proper
solutions. However, with untouchability, there is often a failure of words. Grief is
merged with anger. He often exclaims how an institution of this kind has been tolerated
and even defended. He distinguished the institution of untouchability from that of
caste, though the former is reinforced by the latter, and Brahmanism constituted the
enemy of both. He felt that it was difficult for outsiders to understand the phenomena.
He thought human sympathy would be forthcoming towards alleviating the plight of the
untouchables, but at the same time anticipated hurdles to be crossed – hurdles made of
age-old prejudices, interests, religious retribution, the untouchables could muster. He
found that the colonial administration did little to ameliorate the lot of the
untouchables. He argued that the track-record of Islam and Christianity, in this regard is
not praiseworthy either, although they may not subscribe to untouchability as integral
to their religious beliefs.
4. Ambedkar felt that untouchables have to fight their own battle and if others are
concerned about them, then, such a concern has to be expressed in helping them to
fight rather than prescribing solutions to them. He discussed attempts to deny the
existence of untouchables and to reduce the proportion of their population in order to
deny them adequate political presence. He resorted to comparison with what he called
the parallel cases, such as the treatment meted out to slaves and Jews but found the lot
of the untouchables worse than theirs. He argued that in spite of differences and
cleavages, all untouchables share common disadvantages and treatment from caste
Hindus: they live in ghettos; they were universally despised and kept outside the fold He
maintained a graphic account of the course of the movement of the untouchables,
although this was much more specific about the movement in the Bombay Presidency.
  He threw scorn at the Gandhian attempt to remove untouchability and termed it as a
mere pretense aimed at buying over the untouchables with kindness. He presented
voluminous empirical data to defend such a thesis, and suggested his own strategies to
confront untouchability, warning untouchables not to fall into the trap of Gandhism. He
exhorted them to fight for political power. Although he did not find the lot of
untouchables better among Christians and Muslims, he felt that they had a better
option as they did not subscribe to untouchability as a religious tenet. Ambedkar was
also deeply sensitive to insinuations offered by others to co-opt untouchables within
their political ambit.
 Ambedkar rarely went into the origin of untouchability in history. He rebutted the
suggestion that race has anything to do with it and did not subscribe to the position that
caste has its basis in race either. However, in one instance, he proposed a very
imaginative thesis that untouchables were broken men living on the outskirts of village
communities who, due to their refusal to give up Buddhism and beef-eating, came to be
condemned as untouchables. He did not repeat this thesis in any central way later to
the fold either. It has to be noted that the thesis was proposed when Ambedkar was
fighting for the recognition of untouchables. He thought that untouchables were
separate element in India and, therefore, should be constitutionally evolved with
appropriate safeguards.

Untouchability as practiced

1. When the Constitution of India outlawed untouchability in 1950 many believed that a
centuries old practice has been brought to an end But even after so many years there is
no full eradication of untouchability in India. Millions of Dalits across the country who
account for roughly 1/5th of the population continue to suffer birth based
discrimination and humiliation.
2. Dalits have been deprived of their right to education and the right to possess land and
other forms of property. Left with nothing but their physical labor to earn their
livelihood they have all along forced to do the toughest and most menial jobs for
survival.
3. They are denied access to public roads, tanks, temples and cremation grounds with
segregation of Dalits is seen almost everywhere especially in rural India. The
constitutional ban and compulsions of modernity and development have to some extent
blunted its rigor.
4. Although all state governments claim that they have abolished manual scavenging
reports reveal that this practice is very much alive in many parts.
5. There are also road transport related violations of the law against untouchability.
Among them is the unwritten rule that gives caste Hindus priority over Dalits in
boarding buses in many areas, transport employees picking up fights with Dalit
passengers without provocation.
6. Teachers and fellow students belonging to upper caste Hindu social group often
discourage the Dalit students. In many schools Dalit pupils are not allowed to share
water with upper caste Hindus. There is also systematic refusal of admission to Dalits in
certain schools.
Emergence of Dalit Consciousness

1. Dalits occupy the lowest position in the local hierarchy of castes. They are from the
former outcaste group of untouchables who adopted the nomenclature of dalits
following the original usage of the term by Mahatma Jyotiba Phule.During British period
a number of movements came into existence that showed concern for dalits at various
levels. Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, Dr Ambedkar, and reform movements fought for the
Dalit cause.
2. Dalit term became very popular after 1975 when Namdeo Dhasal, Raja Dhale and other
Dalit literary personalities and youth launched a movement, called Dalit panther on the
lives of Black Panther in USA

Dalit Demography: According to census 2011, Dalits are 17.1% of Indian population. In terms
of percentage of state’s population in Punjab they are 28%. In Bengal they are 24%. And in UP
they are 19%. In terms of absolute numbers the highest is in UP, more than 40 millions, then in
West Bengal and then in Bihar.

Dalit identity has become important no because of their numbers but because of their identity
and assertion. They have been consistently moving in social political and cultural terms. It is
their identity and assertion which have made them important.

1. In the post independence period the legal sanctions against discrimination made the
lower castes accessible for political and constitutional rights. The reservation of
electoral candidates for parliament and assembly also created awareness among the
Dalits for the assertion of their rights.The legal and democratic rights with numerical
strength made the Dalit groups make use of the existing situations. The access to power
through political emancipation has strengthened the egalitarian and competitive
ideologies and identity.

FUTURE PROSPECT

1. The big question is: will dalits ever be integrated in the main stream of the society?
The age-long bondage shackles may be shaken off when the dalits equip themselves
with education and skills and effectively compete in modern society. Legislation alone
will not do away with their disabilities.
2. Along with dalits own effort for achieving resources, change in the attitudes of the
caste Hindus is equally important for banishing untouchability. We agree with
Sachchidananda who holds that the combination of factors like ameliorative efforts of
the government, the growing consciousness of the dalits and the liberal attitudes of
caste Hindus will diminish the disabilities and discriminations with the passage of
time.
3. Politically, dalits are becoming conscious of the fact that they have to take advantage of
their vast numbers in political terms. They may not be united to form a separate
political party but by supporting the dominant national political parties they may extract
the price of their support.
4. But the problem is that though the educated dalits show evidence of politicians, the
masses are not very much touched by this process. The elite have moved from the
politics of compliance and affirmation to the politics of pressure and protest but they
are still not able to present a common front and adopt radical posture.
The Present Discourse
The Dalit discourse today is mainly centered on exlusion. In opinion of Sukhadeo thorat,
exclusion for Dalits indicates either through deliberate intention or by indirect design, Dalits
are deprived of public facilities, social honour and prestiage. Badri Narayan says, In Uttar
Pradesh Dalits are not allowed to avail marriage halls at the time of their marriages.

One interpretation is that exclusions are not externally imposed rather those groups which are
marginalized intentionally get excluded. They include women, minorities, Dalits, Tribals etc.
Sociologically speaking as Eric stokes pointed out that nobody voluntarily excludes themselves.
It is either the fear of negative reaction or reprisals that, marginalized sections get then
excluded Or there is actual reprisal that leads to so called voluntary exclusion.

Special Note :
State and non state initiatives addressing caste and tribe discrimination

1. The Indian state has had special programmes for the Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled
Castes since even before Independence.The Schedules listing the castes and tribes
recognized as deserving of special treatment because of the massive discrimination
practiced against them were drawn up in1935 by the British Indian Govt
2. After Independence the same policies have been continued and many new ones added
Amongst the most significant additions is the extension of special programmes to the
Other Backward Classes since the early 1990s.The most important state initiative
attempting to compensate for past and present caste discrimination is the one
popularly known as reservations.
3. This involves the setting aside of some places or seats for members of the Scheduled
Castes and Tribes in different spheres of public life.These include reservation of seats in
the State and Central legislatures; reservation of jobs in government service across all
departments and public sector companies and reservation of seats in educational
institutions. The proportion of reserved seats is equal to the percentage share of the SC
and STs in the total population. But for the OBCs this proportion is decided differently.
The same principle is extended to other developmental programmes of the
government, some of which are exclusively for the SC or ST while others give them
preference.
4. In addition to the reservations there have been a number of laws passed to end,
prohibit and punish caste discrimination; especially untouchability.
5. The Constitution abolished untouchability and introduced the reservation provisions.
The 1989 Prevention of Atrocities Act revised and strengthened the legal provisions
punishing acts of violence or humiliation against Dalits and adivasis. The fact that
legislation was passed repeatedly on this subject is proof of the fact that the law alone
cannot end a social practice. State action alone cannot ensure social change. No social
group however weak or oppressed is only a victim. Human beings are always capable of
organizing and acting on their own -often against very heavy odds to struggle for justice
and dignity. Dalits too have been increasingly active on the political agitational and
cultural fronts.
6. From the pre-Independence struggles and movements launched by people like Jyotiba
Phule, Periyar, Ambedkar and others to contemporary political organizations like the
Bahujan Samaj Party in UP or the Dalit Sangharsh Samiti of Karnataka, Dalit political
assertion has come a long way.Dalits have also made significant contributions to
 literature in several Indian languages specially Marathi, Kannada, Tamil Telugu and
Hindi.

Tribal communities in India

Definitional Problems of Tribal Communities in India

The Concept of Tribe

1. The Constitution of India gives recognition to a category of people designated as the

Scheduled Tribes and makes special provisions for their political representation and
their economic and social welfare. Anthropologists have since the time of Lewis Morgan
argued about the definition of tribe but very little account has been taken of the tribal
communities of India. 19th century scholars viewed tribal societies in the light of
evolutionary theory. This was true for the anthropologists like Lewis Morgan but also of
historians like Fustel de Coulanges. Morgan sought to demonstrate the stages of social
evolution by the comparison of contemporary primitive societies. Fustel reconstructed
the transformation of Greek and Roman society from a primitive to an advanced type.
IN all of this the tribe represented a type of social organization as well as a stage in
social evolution.
2. The evolutionary perspective has been revived in the writings of Marshall Sahlins and in
Godelier’s critique of Sahlins. Godelier goes back to the writings of Morgan to argue
that we can understand the tribe as a type of social organization only if we view it as a
stage in social evolution. The trouble with 19th evolutionists was that they too readily
believed that the development of a more complex or a more advanced type of society
led automatically to the effacement of the tribal type. It is a truism that tribe has
preceded state and civilization on the broad scale of social evolution.
3. In his first essay Sahlins had considered a segmentary structure to be the defining
feature of the tribe as a type of society. The significance of segmentary political system
was brought to light by British social anthropologists who had worked in Africa. The
initial effect of the publication of African Social Systems was to highlight the differences
between centralized and segmentary societies characterized by Fortes and Evans-
Pritchard as societies of Group A and Group B. However it soon became apparent that
the distinction between the tribe as segmentary system and the tribe as chiefdom is
relative than absolute. Gluckman published his authoritative work in which he had
argued that the difference between tribes organized under chiefs and those which lack
chiefs is not as great as it appears to be.
4. Morgan anthropologists have learnt to distinguish analytically between the band the
segmentary system and the chiefdom. But they have continued by and large to apply
the same term tribe to all the three. The several hundred units that comprise the
Scheduled Tribes of India cover all the modes of tribal organization from the band to the
chiefdom. This goes back to 19th century when the tribal areas began to be
systematically opened up by the colonial administration. At the beginning of 19th
century the mix of the different modes of tribal organization among those who
comprise the STs of today was different. Bands of hunters and gatherers still exist
among the Andaman Islanders or on the mainland among the Birhors were more
common then now. The segmentary mode of tribal organization was also more common
 in Orissa, MR Bihar and other areas. But there were chiefdorns as well in addition to
these. Geographical spread / Issues of integration and autonomy.
5. Tribal society faces problem in the context of Indian society. There is first of all the
problem of discriminating among related and overlapping modes of tribal organization.
There is also problem of drawing clear lines of demarcation between tribal and non-
tribal society. In India the encounters between tribe and civilization have taken place
under historical conditions of a radically different sort. The co-existence of tribe and
civilization and their mutual interaction go back to the beginnings of recorded history
and earlier. Tribes have existed at the margins of Hindu civilization from time
immemorial and these margins have always been vague, uncertain and fluctuating.
Hindu civilization acknowledged the distinction between tribe and caste in the
distinction between tribe and caste in the distinction between two kinds of
communities,Jana and jati, one confined to the isolation of hills and forests and the
other settled in villages and towns with a more elaborate division of labour. The
transformation of tribes into castes has been documented by a large number of
anthropologists and historians.
6. The tribe as a mode of organization has always differed from the caste-based mode of
organization. But tribes are not always easy to distinguish from castes particularly at the
margins where the two modes of organization meet. The distinctive condition of the
tribe in India has been its isolation mainly in the interior hills and forests but also in the
frontier areas. By and large the tribal communities are those which were either left
behind in these ecological niches or pushed back into them in course of the expansion
of state and civilization. The isolation of the tribal communities is and always has been a
matter of degree. Some tribes have been more isolated than others but at least in the
interior areas where the bulk of the tribal population is to found none has been
completely free from the influence of civilization. Their isolation whether self imposed
or imposed by others blocked the growth of their material culture but it also enabled
them to retain their distinctive modes of speech. Today the most single indicator of the
distinction between tribe and caste is the language. The castes speak one or another of
the major literary languages; each tribe has its own distinctive dialect which might differ
fundamentally from the prevalent regional language. But sometimes this distinction
does not work as there are many tribes in western India including the Bhills who do not
have any language of their own and adopted the language of the region.

TRIBAL SOCIETY : DEFINITIONAL PROBLEM

1. In India, Tribe is name given to 8% population, internally segmented and externally

different from each other and carries different racial linguistic and cultural identity. The
people of India report has recognized 636 tribal groups in India.
2. D.N Majumdar defines tribe as a social group with territorial affiliation, endogamous
with no specialization of functions ruled by tribal officers hereditary or otherwise,
united in language or dialect recognizing social distance with other tribes or
castes. According to Ralph Linton tribe is a group of bands occupying a contiguous
territory or territories and having a feeling of unity deriving from numerous similarities
in a culture, frequent contacts and a certain community of interests.
3. LM Lewis believes that tribal societies are small in scale are restricted in the spatial and
temporal range of their social legal and political relations and possess a morality, a
religion and world view of corresponding dimensions. Characteristically too tribal
languages are unwritten and hence the extent of communication both in time and space
 is inevitably narrow. At the same time tribal societies exhibit a remarkable economy of
design and have a compactness and self-sufficiency lacking in modern society.

T.B Naik has given the following features of tribes in Indian context :

1. A tribe should have least functional interdependence within the community.

2. It should be economically backward (i.e. primitive means of exploiting natural
resources, tribal economy should be at an underdeveloped stage and it should have
multifarious economic pursuits).
3. There should be a comparative geographical isolation of its people.
4. They should have a common dialect.
5. Tribes should be politically organized and community panchayat should be influential.
6. A tribe should have customary laws.

Naik argues that for a community to be a tribe it should possess all the above mentioned
characteristics and a very high level of acculturation with outside society debars it from being a
tribe. Thus term usually denotes a social group bound together by kin and duty and associated
with a particular territory.

1. In colonial period the concept of tribe was introduced by the administration to

understand the numerical strength of different cultural communities. Study of Gonds,
Oraons, Nagas, Andaman Islanders, Todas, Baigas by different colonial and Indian
scholars indicated that tribes practiced distinctive culture, religion, way of life, mode of
production which is quite primitive. Hutton calls them as Aborigines while Verrier Elwin
calls them Aboriginals. According to L.P. Vidyarthi, this period was “formative stage of
Indian anthropology. During this period Indian anthropologists like S.C. Roy, N.K. bose
D.N. Majumdar evolved the concept of “Trbie-caste continuous”. S.C. Dube indicates
that “Great tradition” of tribalism always develops of harmonic relationship.
Anthropological studies in 1940 to 70 indicates that the tribes should be studied in
civilization scale, in terms of proximity to caste communities. G.S. Ghurye called them
“Backward Hindus”. A.R. Desai classifies tribe into purest of pure tribes, partially
assimilated fully assimilated and aristocratic tribes. S.C. dube accepting this scale
indicates that “accoutered tribes” are numerous as against “encultured tribes”.
2. Further, Surjeet Sinha argues about Tribe-Caste and Tribe-Peasant continuum. In his
opinion, transformation of tribal economy into peasant economy is more important So
Tribe-Caste difference is both cultural and economic.
3. Supporting this view F.G. Bailey in study of khond tribe says, Tribal economy is
technological and caste economy is institutional Hunting, gathering and shifting
cultivation are major traits of tribal economy. Therefore, it is technological economy.
While in caste economy, caste defines occupation, Jajmani system and hereditary bias.
So it is institutional economy. Haffman also supported this argument He says tribal
economy is driven by Mechanical solidarity and caste economy is driven by organic
solidarity. Therefore tribal progressive movement towards caste should not be studied
only in terms of acculturation, but in terms of technological adaptation and Changing
mode of production. All these explanation to tribes with respect to caste culture and
caste economy is being considered as caste specific understanding of tribes.
4. Apart from this, Andre Beteille in his view on, definition problem of tribes says. In case
of America and Australia it is easy to distinguish between tribes and non tribes with
respect to face, occupation, language habitat, teaching and way of life. There is
 distinction in terms of use of identities such as Aboriginals and immigrants/colonizers.
But in India, people belonging to tribes are differently influenced by different cultures.
Munda of Bihar is different from munda of Bengal though they belong to same tribes,
hence defining tribe is academic problem in Indian sociology, therefore in India, she/he
is who identifies himself/herself a tribe.
5. Jaganath pathy in his analysis, rejects classical understand standing of tribes from view
point of caste. He indicates that tribes need to be understand as an ethinic group
Rejecting Beteille’s view the indicates that common consciousness can bring different
tribes with different languages, occupation together, for example, 18 groups of Nagas
have come together to search of common political identity.
6. Founding fathers of constitution were aware of definitional problem but they more
emphasized on developmental issuse of tribes. Jawaharlal Nehru pointed out that there
are tribes in India who need to be related with larger economy and political life. So his
approach was that of tribal development Who are the tribes is matter of academic
interest and what can be done is matter of state, therefore he suggested tribal
panchashed. Where
 Tribal development should take place on the basis of exploration of their own genius.
 Tribes should be trained to participate in mainstream economic and political activities.
 No development project should be installed which is alien to local communities.
 Every tribal policy should be receiving inputs from need of local Communities.
 Success of tribal development programme should not be assessed on the basis of
quantum of money spent.

Rather it should be assessed on the basis of number of national characters developed.

Therefore commission to identify tribes were instituted and constitution guaranteed for these
protection, livedihood equality and compensation.

Characteristics of Tribal Society

1. The tribe inhabits and remains within definite and common topography. The members
of a tribe possess a consciousness of mutual unity. The members of a tribe speak a
common language. The members generally marry into their own group but now due to
increased contact with outsiders there are instances of tribal marring outside as well.
The tribes believe in ties of blood relationship between its members. They have faith in
their having descended from a common, real or mythical ancestor and hence believe in
blood relationships with other members.
2. Tribes follow their own political organization which maintains harmony. Religion is of
great importance in the tribe. The tribal political and social organization is based on
religion because they are granted religious sanctity and recognition.
3. Mandelbaum writes “In tribal life the principle links for the whole society are based
on kinship.” Kinship is not simply a principle of social organization; it is also a principle
of inheritance, division of labour and distribution of power and privileges. Tribal
societies are small in size. They possess a morality, religion and worldview of their own,
corresponding to their social relations. However some tribes such as Santhals, Gonds
and Bhills are quite large.
Mandelbaum mentions the following characteristics of Indian tribes :

1. Kinship as an instrument of social bonds.

2. A lack of hierarchy among men and groups.
3. Absence of strong, complex, formal organization.
4. Communitarian basis of land holding.
5. Segmentary character.
6. Little value on surplus accumulation on the use of capital and on market trading
7. Lack of distinction between form and substance of religion
8. A distinct psychological bent for enjoying life.

 Nadel has defined tribes as a society with a linguistic, cultural and political
boundary”. But there are problems in such definitions. There are many tribal societies
which lack government and the centralized authority in the ordinary sense of the
term. Likewise cultural homogeneity in a tribe is also elusive in this age.
 Sahlins writes that the term “tribal society” should be restricted to “segmentary
systems”. The segmentary system has relations on a small scale. They enjoy autonomy,
and are independent of each other in a given region. We may observe this about the
Santhals, Oraons and Mundas of Jharkhand or about the Bhils, Meenas and Garasias of
Rajasthan.

Distinctions between folk’, ‘peasant’ and ‘urban’ or between ‘tribal’, folk’ and ‘elite’ are not
very useful for the understanding of tribes in India. For example, the tribes of Jharkhand have
been interacting and cooperating with each other, despite geographical barriers, problems of
communication, relative cultural autonomy and economic self-reliance; as they faced a
common external threat to their traditional system of land relations, economy and cultural
autonomy. The Hindu zamindars, Bengali moneylenders and the British administration
exploited them, pushing them to the point of extinction and utter dehumanization. There was
never inter-tribal isolation and cultural exclusiveness. The tribals of Bihar mobilized their
members against their exploiters. They interacted with the administration, town elite and
outsiders. The Jharkhand area, which contains numerous tribes of Bihar, West Bengal Madhya
Pradesh and Orissa, is a tribal cultural zone comprising several tribal subcultures. The Mundas,
Oraons, Hos and Santhals, the major tribes of this region, depend upon forest produce, settled
agriculture, employment in industries, coal mines and government jobs. Some have settled in
towns, others are in villages, and some of the latter are economically very well off. Thus, tribal
culture is in part a “peasant culture” and in part an “urban culture”.

Tribal exclusiveness, intact tribal solidarity and tribal consciousness on the one hand, and
dependence upon towns and cities, administration and mobilization against their exploiters
and on the other, have existed simultaneously among the tribal people. Even the revival of
tribal aboriginality has been expressed in the form of an instrument for protesting against
the external intrusions and impositions of rules and regulations.

The tribals of Jharkhand are peasants to a large extent and therefore their ‘peasant qualities
should become the basis to understand their economic problems. The characteristics of
peasant societies, outlined by Theodore Shanin, aptly apply to the tribals of Jharkhand. These
are:

1. The peasant family farm is the basic unit of a multi-dimensional social organization;
 2. Land husbandry is the main means of livelihood directly providing the major part of the
consumption needs;
3. Specific traditional culture is related to the way of life of small communities; and
4. The peasants have the underdog position -domination of peasants by others.

The tribes of Bihar have been called peasants by S.C. Roy. They have fought against feudalism
for 300
years. Today they are facing problems emerging out of industrial urbanization in the Jharkhand
region.

Tribes are relatively isolated from larger cultural influences, have a relative cultural
homogeneity and a simple technology. They believe in spirits, magic and witchcraft. They have
their own taboos which prohibit certain actions that are punishable by the community, by the
supernatural or by magical consequences. Large number of the tribes believes in animism,
according to which all objects. counselled – both animate and inanimate-are permanently or
temporarily inhabited by spirits or souls. Often, an activity is believed to be caused by these
spirits. Some spirits are worshipped and treated with fear and respect. Some scholars have
maintained that animism was the earliest form of religion of the tribes. Many tribes believe in
ancestor worship too.

Some general defining features of tribes in India are :

1. Common name : Each tribe has a distinct name of its own through which it is
distinguished from others.
2. Common territory : Tribes generally occupy common geographical areas.
3. Common language : Members of one tribe speak the same language. Each tribe has its
own dialect if not the script.
4. Common culture : Each tribe has prescribed patterns of behaviour and festivals and
deities to worship.
5. Endogamy : Each tribe has the practice of marrying members within their own tribe.
6. Political organization : All tribes have their own political organization. They have
councils of elders to control members.
7. As against the national average of 43 per cent, 57 per cent of the tribals are
economically active.
8. As regards the nature of work, against 73 per cent national average, 91 per cent tribal
workers are engaged in agriculture. About 3 per cent tribals are engaged in
manufacturing (against 11% of general population] and 5 per cent in servicing (tertiary
sectors) against16% average of general population. About 1 per cent tribals are engaged
in forestry and food-gathering.

Tribes have been separated from other social categories on the basis of these features. The
British conducted a detailed enumeration of the tribals in the 1930s. Tribes were distinguished
from castes on the basis of their religious and ecological conditions. However, tribals are also
peasants, as a good number of them today live in villages and have been engaged in
agriculture and allied occupation, just like peasants belonging to various castes and
communities. Today there are more than thirty million tribals divided into 427 tribes. They
form about 8 per cent of the total population. There is vast diversity among the tribes in terms
of habitation, ecology economic pursuits, language, religion and contacts with the outside
world Each tribe is internally stratified. It may be said that members of a given tribe do not
have a clear perception about their existential conditions or that they have a distorted or false
consciousness.

Geographical spread of Indian Tribes

The large tribes of India are the Gonds of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh;
the Bhills of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and the Santhals of
Jharkhand Orissa and West Bengal. The Gonds and the Bhils are more than four million each.
The Santhals are more than three million.

Roy Burman divides tribal communities into five territorial groupings, taking into account their
historical ethnic and socio-cultural relations. These are :

1. North-east India, comprising Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and

Tripura;
2. The sub-Himalayan region of north and north-west India, comprising hill districts of
Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh;
3. Central and East India, Madhya Pradesh (Chhattisgarh),and Andhra Pradesh;
4. South India comprising Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka; and
5. Western India, comprising Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

L.P. Vidyarthi divided the tribal people into four major zones :

1. The Himalayan Region, comprising, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh (Bhot,
Gujjar, Gaddi), Terai area of Uttar Pradesh (Tharus), Assam (Mizo, Garo, Khasi),
Meghalaya, Nagaland (Nagas), Manipur (Mao) and Tripura (Tripuri) and having 11 per
cent of the total tribal population of the country;
2. Middle India, comprising West Bengal Bihar (Santhal Munda, Oraon and Ho), Orissa
(Khonds, Gond) and having about 57 per cent of Indian tribal population;
3. Western India, comprising Rajasthan (Bhil Meena, Garasia), Madhya Pradesh (Bhil etc.),
Gujarat (Bhil Dubla, Dhodia), and Maharashtra (Bhil Koli, Kokna) and containing about
25 per cent of the Indian tribal population; and
4. Southern India, comprising Andhra Pradesh (Gond, Koya, Konda, Dova), Karnataka
(Naikada, Marati), Tamil Nadu (Irula, Toda), Kerala (Pulayan, Paniayan) and Andaman
and Nicobar Islands (Andamanese, Nicobari) and containing about 7 per cent of the
Indian tribal population.

The tribals living in different states belong to various

1. Racial groups (e.g., proto-australoid, which include Santhals, Munda, Oraon and Bhumij,
and Mangoloid which include Garo, etc.),
2. Linguistic groups (Austric like Santhals, Munda, Bhumij, Dravidian like Oraon, and
Tibeto-Chinese like Garo, Bhutia, etc.)
3. Economic categories (food-gatherers, cultivators, labourers),
4. Social and religious categories.

There is also a wide range of variation in their level of development and their level of socio-
cultural integration. Though the majority of the tribals follow patrilineal system of social
organization, yet there are quite a few who have matrilineal systems (like Garo, etc.). A
sizeable proportion of Nagas, Mizos, Santhals, Oraon and Munda, etc., have embraced
Christianity. Some (like Bhutia, Lepcha) are largely identified with Buddhism. Some tribes have
been assimilated into the Hindu fold like the Bhumij and the Bhills. The dominant racial type
among tribes is the proto-Australoid In the sub-Himalayan belt, the Mangoloid type is
preponderant. The Mediterranean and the Negrito are found in other regions. Tribal languages
belong to all the types: the Austric, Dravidian and the Tibeto-Chinese. Tribal people are
generally found to be bilingual. The main occupations of the tribes are forestry and food-
gathering, shifting cultivation, settled agriculture, agricultural labour, animal husbandry and
household industry. Despite many variations, there are also certain similarities also. The tribals
as whole are technologically and educationally backward.

Colonial Policies and Tribes in India

Although the early anthropological work of the colonial era had described tribes as isolated
cohesive communities; colonialism had already brought irrevocable changes in their world. In
most parts of the country, colonialism brought radical transformation of the tribals as their
relative isolation was eroded by the penetration of market forces and they were integrated
with the British and princely administrations. A large number of money-lenders, traders,
revenue farmers and other middlemen and petty officials invaded the tribal areas and
disrupted the tribal’s traditional way of life. They were increasingly engulfed in debt and lost
their lands to outsiders, often being reduced to the position of agricultural labourers,
sharecroppers and rack-rented tenants. Many were forced to retreat further into the hills.
Belated legislation to prevent alienation of land by the tribal people failed to halt the process.

Verrier Elwin, who lived nearly all his life among the tribal people in central and north-eastern
India and who had one of the formative influences in the evolution of the new government’s
policies towards the tribes, was refered the fate of the tribal people under British rule as
follows: they suffered oppression and exploitation, because there soon came merchants and
liquor-venders, cajoling, tricking, swindling them in their ignorance and simplicity until bit by
bit their broad acres dwindled and they sank into the poverty in which many of them still live
today. Simultaneously, missionaries were destroying their art, their dances, their weaving and
their whole culture.

1. Colonialism also transformed the tribals relationship with the forest. They depended on
the forest for food, fuel and cattle feed and raw materials for their handicrafts. In many
parts of India the hunger for land by the immigrant peasants from the plains led to the
destruction of forests, depriving the tribals of their traditional means of livelihood. To
conserve forests and to facilitate their commercial exploitation, the colonial authorities
brought large tracts of forest lands under forests laws which forbade shifting cultivation
and put severe restrictions on the tribal’s use of the forest and their access to forest
products.
2. Network railways and road way extended to tribal areas because tribal areas were
resources rich areas. So to exploit these resources like forests, mines; britishers broke
their isolation. Along with britishers, there come band of moneylenders and plantation
formers. These outsides had different economic motives and way of life. They had no
sensitivity to tribal culture and ecology.
 3. Loss of land, indebtedness, exploitation by middlemen, denial of access of forests and
forest products, and oppression and extortion by policemen, forest officials and other
government officials was to lead to a series of tribal uprisings in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries, for example the Santhal uprising and the Munda rebellion led by
Birsa Munda and the participation of the tribal people in the national and peasant
movements in Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal Andhra, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Following
the various rebellions in tribal areas in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the
colonial government set up ‘excluded’ and ‘partially excluded’ areas, where the entry of
non-tribals was prohibited or regulated. In these areas, the British favoured indirect rule
through local kings or headmen.

The famous isolation versus integration debate of the 1940s built upon this standard picture of
tribal
societies as isolated wholes

1. The isolationist side argued that tribals needed protection from traders,
moneylenders and Hindu and Christian missionaries, all of whom were intent on
reducing tribals to detribalized landless labour.
2. The integrationists, on the other hand, argued that tribals were merely backward
Hindus, and their problems had to be addressed within the same framework as that of
other backward classes.

This opposition dominated the Constituent Assembly debates, which were finally settled along
the lines of a compromise which advocated welfare schemes that would enable controlled
integration.

The subsequent schemes for tribal development – five year plans, tribal’s sub – plans, tribal
welfare blocks, special multipurpose area schemes all continue with this mode of thinking. But
the basic issue here is that:

1. The integration of tribes has neglected their own needs or desires;

2. Integration has been on the terms of the mainstream society and for its own benefit.
3. The tribal societies have had their lands, forests taken away and their communities
shattered in the name of development.

The strategies adopted by the British administrators for solving the problems of the tribals
included acquiring tribal land and forests and declaring certain tribal areas as excluded or
partially excluded.

In addition, they never undertook development activities because they did not want them to
oppose their forest and mineral policy. They wanted that little tradition of tribes and great
tradition of British. Therefore they promoted christianisation of tribes. Gandhi said that
conversion is greatly responsible for rise of Hindu militatism in India. S.C. dube argued that
British wanted to create a body of militantistic tribe through conversion. So current insurgency
is British legacy. According to A.R. Desai tribes lives in India in state of volutaristic isolation.
British with their policies broke down their isolation. Tribes were not prepared for such sudden
intrusion and disruption in their isolated lives. This sudden exploitation and systematic
destitution is affecting even today.
But the British government had also established a number of schools and hospitals in the tribal
areas with the help of Christian missionaries who converted many tribals to
Christianity. Himendroff shares this view, he writes Christian missionaries was instrumental in
bringing tribes from darkness to light. They introduced knowledge, rationality, modern
healthcare. So he argues that do not asscuse British of engineering divide between caste and
tribes. Thus, by and large, during the British period the tribals remained victims of colonial-
feudal domination, ethnic prejudices, illiteracy, poverty and isolation.

After Independence, provisions were made in the Constitution to safeguard tribal interests
and promote their developmental and welfare activities. Gandhi and Thakkar Bapa also did
some pioneering work among the tribals. Nehru enunciated the policy of Panchseel for tribal
transformation, which rested on following five principles:

In 1960, the Scheduled Tribe Commission was set up under the chairmanship of U.N. Dhebar
to work for the advancement of the tribals. After the Fifth Five Year Plan, the Tribal Sub-Plan
(TSP) strategy was designed in 1980 which consisted of two things :

1. Socio-economic development of the tribes, and

2. Protection of tribals against exploitation.

The funds for TSPs are provided by state governments and the cultural ministries.

However, TSP results have not been commensurate with the expectations and the investments
made so far, as heavy emphasis is laid in several states on infrastructural development without
corresponding emphasis on the development of the STs. The TSP schemes are supposed to lay
emphasis on family oriented income-generating schemes in sectors like agriculture, animal
husbandry, cooperatives, tribal crafts and skills, etc., besides laying emphasis on education,
health and housing.

In the Five Year Plans, the programmes for the welfare of the STs aim at:

1. Raising the productivity levels in agriculture; animals husbandry, forestry, cottage and
small-scale industries, etc.,
2. To improve the economic conditions,
3. Rehabilitation of the bonded labour,
4. Education and training programmes, and
5. Special development programmes for women and children.

But various evaluation studies on all these programmes for the integrated development of the
tribals have brought out the inadequacies of

In the Five Year Plans, the programmes for the welfare of the STs aim at:

1. Raising the productivity levels in agriculture; animals husbandry, forestry, cottage and
small-scale industries, etc.,
2. To improve the economic conditions,
3. Rehabilitation of the bonded labour,
4. Education and training programmes, and
5. Special development programmes for women and children.
But various evaluation studies on all these programmes for the integrated development of the
tribals have brought out the inadequacies of

In the Five Year Plans, the programmes for the welfare of the STs aim at:

1. Raising the productivity levels in agriculture; animals husbandry, forestry, cottage and
small-scale industries, etc.,
2. To improve the economic conditions,
3. Rehabilitation of the bonded labour,
4. Education and training programmes, and
5. Special development programmes for women and children.

But various evaluation studies on all these programmes for the integrated development of the
tribals have brought out the inadequacies of of these programmes.

Issues of Integration and Autonomy of Tribal communities in India

Historical Perspective -Isolation

1. The coexistence of fundamentally different culture patterns and styles of living has
always been a characteristic feature of the Indian stage. Unlike most parts of the work,
in India, the arrival of new immigrants and the spread of their way of life did not
necessarily cause the disappearance of earlier and materially less advanced ethnic
groups.
2. The old and the new co-existed. Such a consequence was partly due to the great size of
the sub continent and dearth of communications. More important than this was an
attitude basic to Indian ideology, which accepted variety of cultural forms as natural and
immutable, and did not consider their assimilation to one dominant pattern in any way
desirable. This does not mean, however, that none of the tribes ever became
incorporated in the systems of hierarchically ranked castes. Wherever economic
necessity or encroachment of their habitant by advanced communities led to continued
inter-action between tribes and Hindus, cultural distinctions were blurred and what had
once been self-contained and more or less independent tribes gradually acquired the
status of castes.
3. In many cases they entered caste systems at the lowest rung of the ladder. Some
untouchable castes of Southern India, such as the Cherumans and the Panyers of Kerala,
were undoubtedly at one time independent tribes, neighbouring and in their physical
characteristics. They still resemble neighboring tribal groups, which have remained
outside the Hindu society. There are some exceptions, such as the Meitheis of Assam
who achieved a position comparable to that of Kshatriyas. Tribes who retained their
tribal identity and resisted inclusion within the Hindu fold fared on the whole better
than the assimilated groups and were not treated as untouchables, even if they
indulged in such low-caste practices as eating beef. Thus the Raj Gond princes sacrificed
and ate cows without thereby debasing their status in the eyes of their Hindu neighbors,
who recognized their social and cultural separateness and did not insist on conformity
to Hindu patterns of behavior.
4. This respect for the tribal way of life prevailed as long as contacts between tribes and
Hindu populations of open plains were of a casual nature. The tribal people, though
considered strange and dangerous, were taken for granted as part of the work! of hills
 and forests, and a more or less frictionless co-existence was possible, because there was
no population pressure and the advanced communities did not feel any urge to impose
their own values on people placed clearly outside the spheres of Hindu civilization.
5. This position remained unchanged during the Muslim period. Now and then a military
campaign extending for a short spell into the wilds of tribal country would bring the
inhabitants temporarily to the notice of princes and chroniclers, but for long period the
hill men and forest-dwellers were left to themselves. Under British rule, however, a new
situation arose. The extension of a centralized administration over areas, which
previously were outside the effective control of princely rulers, deprived many
aboriginal tribes of their autonomy. Though British administrators had no intention of
interfering with tribesmen’s rights and traditional manner of living, the very process of
establishment of law and order in outlying areas exposed the tribes to the pressure of
more advanced populations.
6. Thus in areas which had previously been virtually un-administered and hence unsafe for
outsiders who did not enjoy the confidence and goodwill of the tribal inhabitants,
traders and money-lenders could now establish themselves under the protection of the
British administration and in many cases they were followed by setters who succeeded
in acquiring large stretches of tribes’ land Administrative officers who did not
understand tribal system of land tenure introduced uniform methods of revenue
collection. But these had the un-intended effect of facilitating the alienation of tribal
land to members of advanced populations. Though it is unlikely that British officials
actively favored the latter at the expense of primitive tribesmen, little was done to stem
the rapid erosion of tribal rights to land.
7. In many areas tribals unable to resist the gradual alienation of their ancestral land either
with drew further into hills and tracts of marginal land or accepted the economic status
of tenants or agricultural labourers on the land their forefathers had owned. There were
some tribes, however, who rebelled against an administration, which allowed outsiders
to deprive them of their land In the Chhota Nagpur and the Santhal pargansas such
rebellions of desperate tribesmen recurred throughout the nineteenth century, and
there were minor risings in the Agency tracts of Madras and in some of the districts of
Born bay inhabited by Bhils. Thus the Santhals are believed to have lost about 10,000
men in their rebellion of 1855. None of these insurrections were aimed primarily at the
British administration, but they were a reaction to their exploitation and oppression by
Hindu landlords and money-lenders who had established themselves in tribal areas and
were sheltered by a Government which had instituted a system of land settlement and
administration of justice favoring the advanced communities at the expense of simple
and illiterate tribes. In some cases these rebellions led to official inquiries and to
legislative enactments aimed at protecting tribe’s right to their land Seen in historical
perspective it appears that land alienation laws had on the whole, only a palliative
effect. In most areas encroachment on land held by tribes continued even in the face of
protective legislation.

ASSIMILATION OF TRIBALS

1. Acceptance or denial of the necessity for assimilation with Hindu society is ultimately a
question of values. In the past, Hindu society had been tolerant of groups that would
not conform to the standards set by the higher castes. True, such groups were denied
equal ritual status; but no efforts were mare to reflect them from their chosen style of
living. In recent years this attitude has changed Perhaps it is the influence of the
 Western belief in universal values which has encouraged a spirit of intolerance vis-a-vis
cultural and social divergences. Yet India is not only a multilingual and multiracial
country, but is also multi-cultural.
2. And as long as Muslims, Christians, and Parsis are free to follow their traditional way of
life, it would seem only fair that the culture and the social order of tribes however
distinct from that of the majority community should also be respected Assimilation, of
course, will occur automatically and inevitably where small tribal groups are enclosed
within numerically stronger Hindu populations. In other areas, however, and particularly
all along India’s northern and north-eastern frontier live vigorous tribal populations
which resist assimilation as well as inclusion within Hindu caste system.

Democratic Decentralization and Tribals

1. With the introduction of a system of democratic decentralization to take the place of

paternalism characteristic of traditional form of lndian government, a new element has
entered the relations between tribes and the more advanced majority communities.
The ability to vote in general elections for the Parliament in Delhi and the Legislative
Assembly of their respective States did not make much difference to tribals, because
they did not understand the implication of the franchise, but the local elections aroused
their interest to a much greater extent
2. The very fact, that some of the most powerful people of the district approached the
poorest villagers for their votes and tried to gain their confidence, convinced them of a
fundamental change. The very idea that they could choose their representatives was
novel. At first, tribals only voted for non-tribals, for very few were sufficiently educated
to stand for election. Even in areas with a preponderance of tribals, the elected
representatives were often non-tribes and abused their powers by exploiting those who
had voted for them. But as time passed and the tribes gained experience, they have
become shrewder in the choice of their representatives.
3. The Government of India has acepted a policy of integration of tribals with the
mainstream aiming at developing a creative adjustment between the tribes and non
tribes leading to a responsible partnership. By acepting the policy of integration or
progressive acculturation the Government has laid the foundation for the uninhibited
march of the tribals towards equality, upward mobility, and economic viability and
assured proximity to the national mainstream.
4. The constitution has committed the nation to two courses of action in respect of
scheduled tribes, viz
 Giving protection to their distinctive way of life.
 Protecting them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation and discrimination
and bringing them at par with the rest of the nation so that they may be integrated with
the national life.
5. Thus by the Constitution Order 1950 issued by the President of India in exercise of
powers conferred by Clause 9 (i) of Article 342 of the Constitution of lndia, 255 tribes in
17 states were declared to be scheduled tribes. Besides enjoying the rights that all
citizens and minorities have the member of the Scheduled Tribes have been provided
with special safeguards as follows:
6. Protective Safeguards
 Educational safeguards-Article 15(4) and 29
 Safeguards for employment-Articles 16(4), 320(4) and 333
 Economic safeguards -Article 19
  Abolition of bonded labour -Article 23
 Protection from social injustice and all forms of exploitation -Article 46
7. Political Safeguards
 Reservation of seats for ST in LokSabha and Assemblies-Article 330,332,164
 Appointment of Minister in charge of Tribal welfare
 Special provisions in respect of Nagaland, Assam and Manipur-Articles-371(A),371(B)
and 371
8. Developmental Safeguards – Promoting the educational and economic interests of the
Scheduled Tribes-Articles 46 Grants from Central Government to the states for welfare
of Scheduled Tribes and raising the level of administration of Scheduled Areas-Article
75.
9. Following the reorganization of states, the list of STs was modified by the Scheduled
Castes and Tribes List (Modification) order, 1956 on the recommendations of the
Backward Classes Commission. In the revised list 414 tribes were declared STs. Since the
revision of the list in 1956 there have been several proposals for fresh inclusions and
deletion from the lists of the SC and STs

Forced incorporation of tribal communities into mainstream has had its impact on tribal
culture and society as much as its economy. Tribal identities today are formed by this
interactional process rather than any primordial (original ancient) characteristics peculiar to
tribes. Because the interaction with the
mainstream has generally been on terms unfavourable to the tribal communities, many tribal
identities today are centered on ideas of resistance and opposition to the overwhelming force
of the non-tribal world.

The positive impact of successes – such as the achievement of statehood for Jharkhand and
Chhattisgarh after a long struggle – is moderated by continuing problems. Many of the states
of the NorthEast, for example, have been living for decades under special laws that limit the
civil liberties of citizens. Thus, citizens of states like Manipur or Nagaland don’t have the same
rights as other citizens of India because their states have been declared as ‘disturbed areas’.
The vicious circle of armed rebellions provoking state repression which in turn fuels further
rebellions has taken a heavy toll on the economy, culture and society of the Northeastern
states. In another part of the country, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh are yet to make full use of
their new found statehood and the political system there is still not autonomous of larger
structures in which tribals are powerless.

Another significant development is the gradual emergence of an educated middle class

among tribal communities. Most visible in the North eastern states, this is now a segment
beginning to be seen in the rest of the country as well particularly among members of the
larger tribal communities. In conjunction with policies of reservation, education is creating an
urbanized professional class. As tribal societies get more differentiated i.e., develop class and
other divisions within themselves, different bases are growing for the assertion of tribal
identity.

Two broad sets of issues have been most important in giving rise to tribal movements. These
are :

1. Issues relating to control over vital economic resources like land and specially forests,
2. Issues relating to matters of ethnic-cultural identity.
The two can often go together, but with differentiation of tribal society they may also
diverge. The reasons why the middle classes within tribal societies may assert their tribal
identity may be different from the reasons why poor and uneducated tribals join tribal
movements. As with any other community, it is the relationship between these kinds of
internal dynamics and external forces that will shape the future.

Tribes are faced with the problem of preserving their cultural identity and their social
existence. Each tribe has three alternatives:

1. To exist side by side with the majority,

2. To absorb it self in the dominant group, and
3. To secede and seek political independence on the basis of equality.

Different tribes have adopted different processes from amongst the above mentioned three
processes. For example,

1. The Bhils and the Meenas have adopted the first process of co-existence,
2. The Oraon and the Khond tribes have adopted the second process of absorbing
themselves in the Hindu society,
3. The Nagas and the Mizos have adopted the third process of secession.

Our government has not adopted a uniform policy of cultural integration of all tribes
because different tribes are at different stages of development and have different goals and
aspirations. Naturally we find different levels of integration of different tribes. We can only
hold that tribes are gradually being drawn into the wider economic framework of the country
and they are getting themselves involved in the market economy.

Agriculture has come to occupy a central place in the economic activity of many tribes.
According to the 2001 census figures, about three-fourth of the tribals in the country work as
cultivators and about one fifth as agricultural labourers and the rest as labourers in mines,
forests or are engaged in other services. The fact that the tribal cultivators are responding
positively to modern methods of cultivation points out a positive change in tribal’s economic
system. The economic integration of the tribes, however, does not necessarily mean that all
tribes have achieved a high level of income. Many are still living below the poverty line.

Tribals are also being integrated in the political system of the country. The introduction of
the Panchayati Raj has offered them opportunity for an increased involvement in the political
activities. By contesting elections, they have started acquiring power at Panchayat Samiti and
state levels. This has also resulted in educational and social development of tribals.

In social life too, because of the reservation policy, they now occupy important social
positions. Though clan panchayats have not become altogether irrelevant for them, yet their
role is confined to marital and land conflicts. The tribal councils have thus weakened now.

It may be averred that on the one hand the tribals have maintained their cultural identity and
on the other hand they have integrated themselves in the broader economic, Social political
and religious systems of the country. This integration has enabled the tribals to bridge the
social distance that existed between tribals and non-tribals, though they have not succeeded in
achieving social equality.
While analyzing the tribal integration in larger society, would it be relevant to
adopt Ghurye’s model of labeling tribals as ‘backward Hindus’, or Majumdar’s model of
adopting Hindu ideas by tribals through contacts with caste Hindus, or Srinivas’s model of
sanskritisation, i.e., tribes emulating high caste practices, or Bailey’s model of postulating a
continuum at the two ends of which stand a tribe and a caste, is a matter of
discussion. Lutz and Munda criticizing Ghurye and Srinivas models have
suggested ‘modernization model’ for understanding tribal change.

Anthropologists have been evaluating the effectiveness of government programmes and

pointing out the causes of their failure.

1. Roy Burman had observed the strong ethnocentric bias of lndian society, the Indian
government, and the social scientists vis-a-vis the tribes. He maintained that these
groups were designated as ‘tribes’ because the mainstream caste Hindu society
perceives these tribes as being radically different from itself, in the pastas well as in the
present
2. Vidyarthi asserted to incorporate the tribal viewpoint which is considered significant for
the tribal change. Our contention is that tribals themselves must discard their feeling of
‘being tribals and thus having limitations’. They must develop self-pride and self-
confidence, and must stop thriving on borrowed concessions and government’s
reservation policy. It is this attitude which will help them achieve social elevation and
equality. Government policies alone cannot contribute to their development through
‘appeasement’ approach. It is not by being rooted in the traditional culture but by
seeking opportunities to assert themselves that they can elevate themselves in Indian
society.

Tribes are becoming conscious, both socially and politically, of maintaining and preserving
their ethnic and cultural identity and also of protecting themselves against exploitation by
dikus (outsiders). They have stressed their political solidarity. This may, however, result in a
new form of ecological cultural isolation. Tribes have generally taken such steps due to their
economic backwardness and a feeling of frustration.

To integrate the tribes with the mainstream, special economic opportunities are offered to
them. it is “assimilationist”model of the tribe’s integration with non-tribals. The
“isolationist”model would not be much relevant today in the face of rapid changes in Indian
society on the other hand. Despite vast changes taking place in India, tribal consciousness has
been strengthened mainly to project tribes as distinct components of Indian society.
Industrialization in the tribal belt in Jharkhand Gujarat, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh for
example, has promoted both tribal consciousness and integration with the non-tribal sections
in the region. The demand for autonomy by tribals has originated from their fear of loss of
cultural autonomy and of exploitation.

To Niharranjan Ray, the very expressions “tribes’; “criminal tribes’; “scheduled tribes” and
“scheduled castes” are misleading. He believes that these expressions are unfortunate and
unwise. “It has conditioned our attitude towards these communities of peoples and our
approach towards the solution of their problems which are theirs as much as of the rest of the
Indian population.” From the point of view of Indian nationalism, Ray makes the following
observations:
 1. Tribes are Janas or peoples, just like the peoples of other territorial and cultural regions
of India. Tribes or Janas differ from other communities in terms of the socio-economic
system of jati to which non-tribal Hindu communities belong. Ray writes: “Jati is not
caste nor it is just a socio-religious system; it is also an economic system, hereditarily
and hierarchically organized according to groups recruited by birth.”
2. There is a sharp distinction between “incorporation” and “integration”. The tribes have
been incorporated rather than integrated into the jati-fold by placing them at different
hierarchical level of the system, generally at the lower level. Even this process has been
slow, and it has also become redundant because of considerable fluidity in the caste
system. There is a need therefore, to draw them into the new techno-economy, a new
production system.
3. There is a need to understand the stresses and strains being suffered by the tribals due
to the quicker tempo of modern life, new legal administrative and economic systems.
4. The tribal people have migrated to other places from their birth places due to economic
and other hardships. They have also joined to army.
5. The nomenclatures – “scheduled tribes”, “denotified tribes” and “scheduled castes” –
have inherent seeds of division.
6. Tribes today are in search of a sense of identity, of a sense of belonging and for self-
determination in a new social order. Several new states have been formed in the north-
eastern region. The demand for the formation of a separate state is indicative of this
new identity. Ray writes: ”Any consideration in the contemporary context, of the
traditional Hindu method of tribal absorption is therefore, sheer madness to my mind In
the present context this is simply anachronistic.”

But the fact of the matter is that a large number of major tribes have either Hinduised or
converted to Christianity and Islam. These processes of change and mobility have no doubt
reduced the gap between tribals and non-tribals, but have also created factions and feuds
between the non-converts and the converts. A sharp line is drawn in Jharkhand between the
tribals converted to Christianity and those who continue to adhere to their traditional way of
life.

Problems of tribal communities

1. Land Alienation :The history of land alienation among the tribes began during British
colonialism in India when the British interfered in the tribal region for the purpose of
exploiting the tribal natural resources. Coupled with this tribal lands were occupied by
moneylenders, zamindars and traders by advancing them loans etc.
2. Opening of mines in the heart of tribal habitat and even a few factories provided wage
labour as well as opportunities for factory employment. But this brought increasing
destitution and displacement. After the British came to power, the Forest policy of the
British Government was more inclined towards commercial considerations rather than
human.
3. Some forests were declared as reserved ones where only authorized contractors were
allowed to cut the timber and the forest-dwellers were kept isolated deliberately within
their habitat without any effort to ameliorate their economic and educational
standards. The expansion of railway in India heavily devastated the forest resources in
India.
4. The Government started reserving teak, Sal and deodar forests for the manufacture of
railway sleepers. Forestland and its resources provide the best means of livelihood for
 the tribal people and many tribes including the women engage in agriculture, food
gathering and hunting they are heavily dependent on the products of the forest. The
importance of study of land alienation problem is reflected in following points:
5. Tribal land is source of livelihood. Previously land was communally owned. In British
period the individual pattes were given and hence individual ownership of land came
into existence. But simultaneously, there are common lands for grazing etc. these
commonly owned lands were shown as government owned and hence the rights of the
tribals on the communal lands were not recorded nor recognize. Also the prevalence of
shifting cultivation led to the tribal land not being recorded due to ignorance.
6. During government census. Since shifting cultivation is practiced, the tribals migrated to
a other places and hence, the government records it as governmental land After 15-20
years, they claim the land and find that it has been taken away by the government.
7. The government refuses to record the land on slope of the hills. Land is not recorded at
times because of the tribal ignorance regarding the necessity to record it.
8. Non recording of rights due to fluence of the non-tribals, local officials joining hands
with the non-tribals especially in the share-cropping, tenancy etc.
9. Large scale land alienation takes place when there is setting of large scale projects like
irrigation. e.g. polavaram project, Narmada river valley development project.
10. There are number of loopholes in the legislations made for protection of tribal lands. In
Maharashtra for example, the restoration can easily prevent the triblas from giving
complaints. Also there is provision for the tribals to produces a medical certificate to
prove unfit for cultivation and to transfer his/her land to non-tribal. This can always be
taken as advantage by the non-religious charitable endowments and institutions.
Therefore when outsiders exploit the tribe’s land and its resources the natural life cycle
of tribal ecology and tribal life is greatly disturbed.
11. Poverty and Indebtedness : Majority tribes live under poverty line. The tribes follow
many simple occupations based on simple technology. Most of the occupation falls into
the primary occupations such as hunting, gathering, and agriculture.
12. The technology they use for these purposes belong to the most primitive kind. There is
no profit and surplus making in such economy. Hence there per capita income is very
meagre much lesser than the Indian average.
13. Most of them live under abject poverty and are in debt in the hands of local
moneylenders and Zamindars. In order to repay the debt they often mortgage or sell
their land to the moneylenders. Indebtedness is almost inevitable since heavy interest is
to be paid to these moneylenders. Many studies in tribal India reveal that in majority
cases, Indebtedness results in bonded labour and land alienation. The results can be
listed as follows : slavery, bonded labour and free labour to many lenders, alienation of
land and the acquisition by money lenders, prostitution, chronic venereal and allied
discuses, malnutrition etc. for e.g., Sarua Phari as ofBihar.
14. Health and Nutrition: In many parts of lndia tribal population suffers from chronic
infections and diseases out of which water borne diseases are life threatening. They also
suffer from deficiency diseases. The Himalayan tribes suffer from goiter due to lack of
iodine. Leprosy and tuberculosis are also common among them. Infant mortality was
found to be very high among some of the tribes. Malnutrition is common and has
affected the general health of the tribal children as it lowers the ability to resist
infection, leads to chronic illness and sometimes leads to brain impairment.
15. In the communities like Khasis and todas, there is widespread malnutrition due to the
encroachment of the area. Which is affecting the food supply. Moreover these
communities are polyjandrous, which is affecting the fertility and leading to low fertility
 and sterility which is ultimately leading to low birth rate. These tribes also practice
Female infanticide.
16. Korkus of Melghat region of M.P.Maharashtra borders do not drinks milk of cattle as
they believe that it is only for the babies of cattle. So such belief is tending to protein
deficiency and malnutrition problem in tribal children. The ecological imbalance like
cutting of trees have increased the distances between villages and the forest areas thus
forcing tribal women to walk longer distances in search of forest produce and firewood.

Therefore, considering all the above problems virginus XaXa committee recommends specially
designed health such “Tribal health plan” will have three features: one, a process framework
about ‘how’ to prepare the local plan, which will be in the farm of guidelines on mechanisms;
second a series of locally developed need based contents of the plan and third a design or
structure of health care system to deliver such services in all scheduled areas. This “tribal
health plan” should become an essential feature of the National Health Mission and of
the “Tribal sub plan”.

1. Education :Educationally the tribal population is at different levels of development but

overall the formal education has made very little impact on tribal groups. Earlier
Government had no direct programme for their education. But in the subsequent years
the reservation policy has made some changes. There are many reasons for low level of
education among the tribal people: Formal education is not considered necessary to
discharge their social obligations.Superstitions and myths play an important role in
rejecting education. . As for the content of the education is concerned generate use of
books with subject unknown to the tribals are taught in many states. Mother tongue
and medium of instruction is another important factor. Many tribal languages and
diabetes are in a rudimentary stage and there is hardly any written literature and the
main reason for this is their isolation. There is an urgent need for the preservation and
development of these dialects. Medium of instruction is important for any education. In
most tribal areas education is imparted in regional language. This is a disadvantage to a
tribal child who has no knowledge of regional language. This is one of the important
factor responsible for under development of tribal education and low achievement of
tribal children in examinations. Viginius XaXa Committee also recommends inclusion of
local culture, folklore and history in curriculum. It can help in building. Confidence of
tribal children and enhance relevance of education in their life. Therefore storytelling,
theatres, painting, music and dance performances should be promoted. Similarly, sports
such as football archery and other popular local sports are extremely, beneficial and
therapeutic for children and should be promoted Most tribes live in abject poverty. It is
not easy for them to send their children to schools, as they are considered extra helping
hands. The formal schools do not hold any special interest for the children.
2. Cultural Problems : Due to contact with other cultures, the tribal culture is undergoing a
revolutionary change. Due to influence of Christian missionaries the problem of
bilingualism has developed which led to indifference towards tribal language. The tribal
people are imitating western culture in different aspects of their social life and leaving
their own culture. It has led to degeneration of tribal life and tribal arts such as dance,
music and different types of craft.
Tribe-Caste Continuum

1. Anthropologists have differed on the question relating to tribe and caste. According to
Ghurye tribal people are backward Hindus differing only in degrees from the other
segments of Hindu society. Elwin argued for the recognition of separate social and
cultural identity of tribal people. Government of India gives tacit recognition to this
identity of keeping alive under constitution sanction their lists of Scheduled Tribe.
2. According to Andre Beteille there are certain commonly observed differences between
tribes and castes. The tribes are relatively isolated as to the castes .They are world
within itself having few externalities. Tribes speak a variety of dialects which separates
them from non tribes. They follow their own religion and practices which are not
common in Hinduism. Language is a criterion of difference as tribes speak their local
dialect for example Mundas and Oraons of Chota Nagpur speak different dialects but
Bhumij have lost their tribal dialect and speak dominant language of the area.
3. According to N.K Bose there are many similarities in customs between tribes and castes
and they are interdependent Marriage within the clan is forbidden both in the tribe as
well as in the caste. Both generally don’t encourage marriage outside the group.
4. According to Herbert Risley the convention of endogamy is not rigidly enforced in the
tribe where as such is the case in a tribe. But this view is not acceptable since the law of
endogamy is enforced with extreme rigidity in some tribes.
5. Max Weber writes in Social Structure that when an Indian tribe loses its territorial
significance, it assumes the form of an Indian caste. In this way the tribe is a local group
whereas caste is a social group.
6. According to D.N Majumdar the tribe looks upon Hindu ritualism as foreign and extra -
religious even though indulging in it and the in the worship of God and Godless where
as in the caste these are necessary part of the religion.
7. In caste individuals generally pursue their own definite occupations because functions
are divided under the caste system. In the tribe individuals can indulge in whatever
profession they prefer as there is no fixed relation between them and occupation.
8. According to Bailey tribe and caste should be viewed as continuam. He seeks to make
distinction not in terms of totality of behavior but in more limited way in relation to the
political economic system. Briefly Bailey’s argument is that a caste society is hierarchical
while a tribal society is segmentary and egalitarian. But in contemporary India both
caste and tribe are being merged into a different system which is neither one nor the
other.
9. The tribes in India have been influenced by certain traditions of the communities
around them. Major neighbouring community in all the areas has always been Hindus.
As a result from the very period there have been several points of contact between the
Hindus of the area and tribal communities living within it. The nature and extent of
contact the pattern of mutual participation and characteristics of revitalization
movements have been different in different parts of India.
10. The ethnographic records establish that the contacts varied from semi-isolation to
complete assimilation. The numerous castes among Hindus have emerged out of the
tribal stratums. The recent studies of tribes of Himalayan western and middle India have
left no doubt that some of the tribes are Hinduized to the extent that they have been
assimilated with the different castes at different levels in the caste system.
11. The study of two major Central Himalayan tribes. Tharu and Khasa reveal that though
they have a tribal matrix and continue to practice certain distinctive tribal customs they
have been accepted as Kshatriya. Their culture have been modeled on the ways of living
 of the Rajputs and Brahmins of the neighbour plain areas. With their fast adoption of
the Hindu names and establishment of social connections with the Rajputs and
Brahmins of the plains.
12. They declare themselves as Rajputs and with Brahmins constitute the apex of the social
order. With the long and continuous contacts with the regional Hindu castes the tribals
of Kharwars has long been assimilated as Rajput castes. There are numerous other
tribes which have undergone selective acculturation and have added selected traits or
features of the regional Hindus to their respective traditional cultures. In this practice of
acculturation most of them failed to occupy any rank in the castes hierarchy while few
of them were integrated into the lower strata of the Hindu social system. For more
information on Hlndusiation of tibes, see is chapter 1, “Does Sanskritisation exist among
tribes”?

Exploitation and Unrest of the tribes

1. For ages tribals are considered primitive segment of Indian society. They lived in forests
and hills without any contact with civilizations. During British rule they consolidated
their position and their political aspirations and administrative needs necessitated to
open up the entire country.
2. The British introduced the system of land ownership and revenue. Annual tax was
trebled which was beyond the paying capacity of tribal cultivators. Many non tribals
began to settle in the tribal areas offering credit facilities. Initially it provided relief to
tribals but gradually the system became exploitative. Over the years the tribal
population faced all types of exploitation. This aroused the tribal leaders to mobilize the
tribals and start agitations.
3. Thus it is the cumulative result of a number of factors.
 Indifference from administrators and bureaucracy in dealing with tribal grievances.
 Harsh and unfriendly forest laws and regulations.
 Lack of legislation to prevent the passing of tribal land into the hands of non-tribals.
 Lack of credit facilities. Ineffective government measures to rehabilitate tribal
population.
 Delay in implementation of recommendations of different committee.
 Discrimination in implementation of reform measures.

Tribal Development Efforts after Independence

Tribal Development Efforts and Policies of Tribal Development. After Independence.

The tribal situation in country poses peculiar problems of development. This peculiarities
broadly comes under the geographical demographic and socio-cultural framework. Tribal
communities constitute separate socio-cultural group as they posses distinct customs,
traditions, marriage, kinship system and property inheritance shyness of contact with the
community at large has been the most distinguishing feature of the tribal population which
follows from geographical isolation of the vast majority of tribal population. In the country, The
tribal economy largely based on food gathering, hunting. Forestland cultivation, shifting
cultivation and minor forest produce collection. Therefore, their geographical isolation and
economic improvishment made them subject of exploitative economic and trade practices of
non-tribals living in the area. So any effort in the direction of development of tribe needs
holistic approach. Lets see the approach after independence.
Early Experiments:

1. In 1952, under first five year plan a programme of community development and
launched for comprehensive development of rural areas. It was applied equality to
tribal areas too. But it became clear that the tribal areas needed special treatment and
hence in 1954, few special multipurpose tribal development projects were launched in
those areas. A review of this programme pointed to the need of constituting Tribal
development blocks with an area of about 150 to 200sq. miles and with population
coverage of about 25000. About 40% of the tribal population in the country were
covered by 500 such blocks by the end of the Third five year plan.
2. The community development block approach and Tribal development block approach
had some common aspect Both were sectoral in approach and developmental in
outlook, lacking specific administrative perspective and organization to take care. These
approaches neglected the protective requirements of tribal development The members
of general community were for advanced both economically and educationally than
tribals. So advantages offered in these approaches were largely accrued to former as
compared to later. Therefore gap between tribal and non-tribal got widened.
3. In 1961, important observation were made by scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes
Commission (Dhebar Commission) and shily Ao committee in 1961 on planning
implementation and administration of programmes for tribals development. They took
the view that mere area development is counter productive. Which may act as catalog
for the more advanced communities to creep into tribals areas for purpose of self
aggrandizement. So they advocated in depth vision into administration and
infrastructure inadequacies. Particularly to handle problems of land alienation,
indebtedness and educational backwardness.

Target Group Approach and Tribal Development Experiment :

1. During fourth five year plan an approach to develop specific target group and areas like
small formers, marginal farmers, agricultural labourers, draught prone areas etc. this
approach to particular section of population, occupational category or a scientific
problem area for development through strategies appropriate to end. The general block
development approach was not as such abandoned. But was to have special approach
superimposed on it in the interest of target groups/areas.
2. As per this approach, idea of special tribal development agencies were operationalized
in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa. A Mini administration framework
with project director at the head was provided to each agency. And they have to pay
attention to problem areas specifically relevant to tribal populations. Programme in
agriculture and allied sector which concerned the tribal section vitally, social services
and development of material roads to improve communications were brought within
the roads the scope of activity of these agencies with a marginal orientation towards
steps designed to counter the exploitative endeavors of the anti social elements. The
tribal development blocks were too small to works as effective unit for planning and
implementation this deficiency was sought to be removed by making the tribal
development agencies as big as sub-divisions. The pilot experiment with the tribal
development agencies was nota cent percent success but they provided voluable
insights into deficiencies in planning and administration, both organizational and
financial
 3. They suggested that mere grounding of a special administrative frame was not enough
unless a co-ordinating of special to the tribal programmes at a sufficiently high level is
taken and methodologies and developmental concerning tribals and not merely to few
specified sector under a frequented sectoral approach.

The Tribal Sub-Plan Approach:

In beginning of fifth plan, a comprehensive view of tribal problem was taken. In 1972, besides
the task force on development of tribal areas, planning commission constituted a working
group on personnel policy for the tribal areas under chairmanship of RN. Hakiipur. Several
other teams were to go into tribal problems such as rural indebtedness, land alienation, excise
policy etc. the result of these deliberations was the birth of new strategy of tribal sub-plan
within the broad framework of the state and central plans.

The long term objectives of TSP were to narrow the gap between the levels of development of
tribal and others. In brief, the approach envisaged tackling the tribal problems by categorizing
them under three identifiable areas and groups.

1. In regions of substantial tribal concentration, on area development approach is to be

combined with a focus on the tribal population and their problems.
2. In smaller areas of dispersed tribal population where the scheduled tribes live merged
with general population, a modified area approach or account of the truncated nature
of habitat but with similar focus on the tribes would be called for.
3. In certain extremely backward and smaller tribal groups living generally in pre-
agricultural level of technology in inaccessible areas and facing the problem of their very
survival would be treated as a special category both within the areas of tribal
concentration and outside. Special group oriented programmes could be formulated for
them.

These three categories were brought respectively under integrated Tribal Development
Project (MADA), Pockets and Primitive Tribe Projects.

1. The new tribal sub-plan strategy consisted of twin approach of area development’ and
‘Problem Solving’. The strategy intended to achieve a balance between economic
development, infrastructure and education advancement and anti-exploitative
protective measures between STs and the rest of community over period of time with
the view to put the tribal population in mainstream of national life at par with others.
The objectives naturally required diverse measures; identification bottle necks and
barriers working against forces of development and agencies working as promoters of
change. Along with it required the right type of administrative inputs and administrative
setup that to be formed selection of the right type of personnel having the necessary
emptying and understanding of tribal problems was also considered to be of prime
importance. It was felt that purposive administrative system in the tribal areas should
have operational units which have adequate administrative and Financial delegation to
take decision with efficiency. The post of project officer was fashioned in this light
District collector was made the chairman of the implementation and review committee
at project level with local MPs. Besides other district officials as members.
2. As part of new orientation to ensure resource mobalization for meeting the
requirements of tribal sub-plan, state plan outlays, sectoral outlays of the central
ministries and institutional finance were specifically identified as the source of finance
 for implementation of programmed by the Tribal Area Administration. The tribal
administration at the state and central levels were to ensure flow of all these funds to
the projects areas for investment in eligible schemes. Financial discipline and non-divert
ability of tribal sub-plan funds were sought to be achieved by prescribing separate
budget heads for tribal sub-plan provision under the respective functional demands of
the concerned sectoral departments or by bringing all budgetary provisions for tribal
areas development in all sectors under a unified demand with suitable minor heads to
the controlled by the tribal development departments of stage as well as center.
3. The impact of new arrangement will be clear from the fact that state plan outlay for
tribal development programme rose from Rs. 900 er. duringFifth plan to Rs. 3550cr.
During sixth plan. Total investment from Rs. 1182 cr to Rs. 5550 cr.
4. The central ministries investment was around Rs. 700 cr. During the sixth plan as against
an average annual investment of Rs. 75 cr. Earlier.
5. For Monitoring of programme, a working group appointed by Ministry of Home affairs
recommended a three tier monitoring at block, ITDP and state levels with overall
monitoring at the level of Home Ministry Evaluation studies, both holistic and covering
specific areas/ progammes have been taken up field organization under the states, the
tribal research institutes, national level autonomous organization and professional
bodies.
6. For legislative backup, the special provisions enshrined in the Indian constitution in
Article 436, 275, the fifth schedule and several other articles were used states having
tribal population enacted regulatory and protective legislations on land alleviation,
money lending, rights to forest growths, excise and several other spheres of
exploitation, Besides the central law on bonded labour abolition.
7. However, Innovation in administrative procedures and system seldom yield visible
results in short run. Time required for percolation is generally quite considerable in
Indian context where depth and expanse of administrative cover are large and
complicated Naturally, there are not a few shortcomings still persisting. These mainly
relate to co-ordination, linkage, involvement of beneficiaries and organizational
inadequacy in certain spheres.

Co-ordination : The project administrator at the ITDP level was envisioned to be a co-ordinator
of all activities in the project area programmes of rural development in the tribal areas under
integrated rural development, national and employment, rural labourer employment
guarantee programme etc, were to be sunburned within the ITDR. All this was aimed at unified
and integrated approach to tribal development. It has not yet been found convenient by the
states to putthe project administration in sole co-ordinating charge of all items of development
administration within his/her jurisdiction.

Beneficiary Involvement: The beneficiaries of welfare administration should not be made

mere recipient and on lookess while the government areas as a gigantic dispenser of schemes.
This is peculiar to tribal situation where socio-cultural isolation from the general community is
considerable in some cases. No doubt, there are at present quite a few institutions, like the
panchayati Raj institutions, the autonomous tribal development authorities, the project
implement. But there is case for improving active participation, particularly at the project
formation stage, as distinguished from formal participation. The projects for tribal area units of
administration have been mostly formulated by official agencies with minimal consultation
with tribal representatives. In this background there is a case for perfecting and
institutionalizing a three tier system of beneficiary consultation at block, ITDP and district level
tribal project report more need based more reflective of aspirations and apt in the ecological
environment of a particular or its sub-group.

Strengthening Organization : Inadequacy of organizational frame, in certain geographical area

inhabited by the scheduled tribes as also in certain vital developmental spheres need serious
attention. Till the end of sixth plan, a minimum administrative set up for all the identified
primitive tribal groups in country could not be grounded in all the states. A suitable
mechanisms of development for a vast mass of tribal forest villagers and shifting cultivators
has yet to be perfected. While vast mass of tribal population, who have been ousted and
displaced followed implementation of a large number of irrigation, power, mining and
industries projects day. Evolving suitable technology acceptable to tribal communities and
commissioning an administrative formulation capable of taking a holistic view of the need. The
country has advanced pretty for since independence days in molding and fashioning a suitable
administration for the scheduled tribes. It may not be futuristic to hope that the rest of the
problems nagging the country will be duly taken note of its strategy for tribal development.

Funding of Tribal Development Programmes

The sources of funds made available are

1. State Plan
2. Special CentralAssistance
3. Sectoral Programmes ofCentral Ministries/Departments
4. Institutional Finance.

The State Governments are required to quantify the funds from State Plan for tribal area
development in
proportion to percentage of tribal population in the states.

1. Construction of the Hostels for Tribal students: Construction, Maintenance expense is

to be borne by the State Governments/Union Territories. The rates for construction of
the hostels are fixed which are different for the plains and the hills. It has been
represented by various States that these rates are not workable any more in view of the
escalation of prices of building materials and long distance involved particularly for the
hilly areas. It is, therefore, proposed to revise the norms and to adopt the State PWD
schedule of rates as in the case of construction of Ashram Schools. During 1990-91 to
1992-93, the amount of Rs. 8.64 crores has been released to the States/Union under
various stages of completion. The scheme envisages setting up of vocational training
institutes in inner tribal areas away from the district headquarters to impart training in
various courses relevant to the areas. The tribal youth would be given training in three
trades of his or her choice, the course in each trade having duration of four months. The
trainee is to be attached at the end of one month training to master craftsman for a
period of three months to learn his skills by practical experience. At the end of 15
months, the trainee will emerge as a multi-skilled person who can exploit existing
employment potentials to his/her best advantage. This is a Central Sector Scheme
where the construction and maintenance costs are fully borne by the Central
Government It is implemented through the State Governments. Proposals are obtained
from them along with details of existing infrastructure as well as the employment
potentials in the proximity of the proposed location.
2. Educational complex in low literacy pockets for women in Tribal areas. This Scheme
provides cent percent financial assistance to NGOs/ Organization established by
government as autonomous bodies/educational & other institutions like Cooperative
Societies, to establish educational complexes in 136 identified districts of erstwhile 11
states (now 13) where tribal female literacy is below 10% as per 1991 census.
Educational complex is meant for girls studying from class I to V with strength of 30
students in each class. The grants are provided to meet non-recurring as well as
recurring expenses on building (hiring or maintenance) teaching, boarding, lodging and
to also for medical and health care of students.
3. Grant-in-Aid to state Tribal development Cooperative Corporation and others: This is a
Central Sector Scheme, with 100% grant, available to the state Tribal
DevelopmentCooperative Corporation (STDCCs) and other similar corporations of State
engaged in collection and trading of minor forest produce (MFP) through tribals Grants
under the Scheme are provided to strengthen the Share Capital of Corporations,
construction of Warehouses, establishment of processing industries of MFPs etc. to
ensure high profitability of the co-orporation so as to enable them to pay remunerative
prices for MFPs to the tribals.
4. Price Support to TRIFED :The Ministry provides Grants-in-aid to its corporation, TRIFED
to set off losses on account of fluctuations in prices of MFPs being marketed by it for
ensuring remunerative prices to tribal engaged in collection of MFPs either directly or
through STDCCs and other such Cooperative Societies. Investment in Share Capital
of TRIFED. The Ministry is the largest share holder of TRIFED with over 99% contribution
in its Share Capital Under this Scheme, the Ministry provides funds to TRIFED as its
contribution in the Share Capital.
5. Village Grain Banks: This Scheme provides Grants for establishment of Village Grain
Banks to prevent deaths of STs specially children in remote and backward tribal villages
facing or likely to face starvation and also to improve nutritional standards. The Scheme
provides funds for building storage facility, procurement of Weights & Measures and for
the purchase of initial stock of one quintal of food grain of local variety for each family.
A Committee under Chairmanship of village Headman runs the Grain Bank thus
established
6. Grant-In-Aid to Voluntary Organizations: As many as 27 types of projects with focus on
tribal education, literacy, medical & health care, vocational training in agriculture,
horticulture, craftsmanship etc., are being supported by the Ministry under this Scheme
through registered Non-Governmental Organizations.
7. Research and Training: Under the Scheme “Research &Training” the Ministry provides
financial assistance under Grants to Tribal Research Institutes on 50:50 sharing basis; for
conducting Research & Evaluation Studies, Seminars, and Workshops etc. Award of
Research Fellowship to Tribal Students on 100% basis registered in Indian Universities.
Supporting projects of All-India or Inter-State nature on 100% basis to
NGOs/Universities etc. for conducting research on tribal matters, Travel Grants and for
Publication of Books on tribals.
 Social Classes in India

Agrarian Class Structure in India

Agricultural Societies

1. Cultivation of land through the plough as this invention enabled the people to make a
great leap forward in food production. It increased the productivity of land through the
use of animals and bringing to the surface the nutrients of the soil.
2. Combining irrigation techniques with the use of the plough increased the productivity
and the crop yield It also brought fallow land under cultivation. The size of the
agricultural societies increased as it lessened the burden of large number of people who
engaged themselves in other activities. Agricultural societies lead to the establishment
of more elaborate political institutions like formalized government bureaucracy assisted
by the legal system. It also leads to the evolution of distinct social classes -those who
own the land and those who work on the other’s land. Land is the major source of
wealth and is individually owned.
3. This creates major difference between the social strata. Agricultural societies provide
the basis for the establishment of economic institutions. Trade becomes more elaborate
and money is medium of exchange. It also demands the maintenance of records of
transaction, crop harvest, taxation, governmental rules and regulations. Religion
becomes separate institution with elaborate rituals and traditions.
4. The agricultural societies support the emergence of arts and cultural artifacts due to
surplus food production people tend to divert their attention to other recreational
activities. There is far more complex social structure. According to Ian Robertson the
number of statuses multiplies, population size increases, cities appear, new institutions
emerge, social classes arise, political and economic inequality becomes inbuilt into the
social structure and culture becomes much more diversified and heterogeneous.

Agrarian class structure

Agrarian class structure in India have been shaped by long historical and politico-
administrative process. The traditional Indian society was organized around caste lines. The
agrarian relations were governed by the norms of jajmani system. However, the jajmani
relations began to disintegrate after the colonial rulers introduced changes in the India
agriculture. The process of modernization and development initiated by the India State
during the post-independence period further weakened the traditional social structure.

1. Caste stratification, according to some scholars, is associated with the rural and class
stratification with the urban situation. Yogendra Singh has held that this statement is
based on fallacy; it is not based on socio historical evidence. Some western scholars
held the view that early India was a static society, where not change but continuity was
a dominant feature. But this fallacy of‘ static India’ hypothesis has been criticized by
scholars like P.C.Joshi, Yogendra Singh, B.
2. Cohn and Romila Thapar. Many classes like priests, feudal chiefs, merchants, artisans,
peasants, labourers, etc., existed in early India. Merchants did not occupy low position
in social hierarchy. The base for their mobility was their economic relationship. Their
caste status did not clash with the class status. Yogendra Singh holds that the position
 of many castes altered over time, and wealth and properly played an important role in
achieving an improved status, particularly among the merchant class.
3. The period after 1000 A.D. saw the growth of classes of traders, artisans etc.,in cities. In
the Mughal period too, since a large share of village produce was taken to the urban
market the dynamism of the class structure of both the cities and villages continued.
This implied not only the existence of agrarian classes in villages but also a stable class
of merchants, middlemen and bankers in towns and cities.
4. In the British period, the policy of trade and commerce affected the artisan classes
and led to their large-scale migration to rural areas. Further, the British policy of
favoured treatment to the port towns; neglect of vast number of other towns, policy of
taxation and many others. Socio-economic policies led to the decline of the traditional
Indian economic structure as well as the class structure. The class structure in the rural
area was also affected due to land settlement policy.
5. At the same time, the British policies created new foundations for the emergence of a
feudal agrarian class structure. While caste continues to be an important social
institution in the contemporary Indian society, its significance as a system of
organizing economic life has considerably declined.
6. Though the agricultural land in most parts of India is still owned by the traditionally
cultivating caste groups, their relation with the landless menials are no more
regulated by the norms of caste system. The landless members of the lower caste now
work with the cultivation farmers as agriculture labourers.We can say that in sense;
caste has given way to class in the Indian countryside.
7. The agrarian system that evolved in the rural areas during the British regime were based
either on the zamindari or the ryotwari type of land systems. The zamindari system had
three main agrarian classes: zamindars, tenants and agricultural labourers. The
ryotwari system had two main classes: ryot landlords and the ryot-peasants.
8. The agrarian class structures everywhere in India had a feudal character. The
zamindars (i.e., non cultivating owners of land) were tax-gatherers, the tenants were
real cultivators (often without security of land tenure), and the agricultural labourers
had the status of bonded labour. With the support of the rulers power, this highly
exploitative system continued to persist till the political independence of the country,
despite peasant unrest the peasant movements.

In pre-British period Agrarian class structure was based on self-sufficient village community.
So there was no class structure. During British period broad category of agrarian classes
emerged Landlords, Tenants, Peasant Proprieters, Agricultural Working Class.

After independence, comprehensive land reforms and rural development programme gave
rise to the emergence of distinctive pattern of agrarian class structure independent of caste
hierarchy. The abolition of the zamindari system took away the powers of the zamindars.

Yogendra Singh has referred to several trends in agrarian class structure after independence.
These are:

1. There is a wide gap between land-reform ideology projected during the freedom
struggle and even thereafter and the actual measures introduced for land-reforms.
2. This gap is the result of the class character of politician and administrative elite.
3. The economic prosperity of the rich peasantry has increased but the economic
condition of the small peasants has deteriorated.
 4. Capitalist type of lease-labour or wage labour agrarian system.
5. The inequalities between the top and the bottom levels of classes have increased rather
than decreased.
6. Agricultural workers have not received the benefits of land reforms. The sociological
process dominant in the current class transformations in the villages involves’
embourgeoisement’ of some and ‘prolateriatisation’ of many social strata.

P.C. Joshi referring to the trend in agrarian class structure has pointed out:

1. The decline of feudalistic type of tenancy and its replacement by more exploitative lease
arrangements.
2. The rise of commercially oriented landlords.

Andre Beteille has referred to change from ‘cumulative’ to ‘dispersed, inequalities due to
changing social stratification. However, the agrarian social structure is still marked by
diversities. As pointed out by D. N. Dhanagare, the relation among classes and social
composition of groups that occupy specific class position in relation to land control and land
use in India are so diverse and complex that it is difficult to incorporate them all in a general
scheme. However, despite the diversities that mark the agrarian relation in different parts of
country, some scholars have attempted to club them together into some general categories,
Amongst the earliest attempts to categories the Indian agrarian population into a framework
of social classes was made by following sociologists;

Andre Beteille
Beteille studies agrarian class structures on the basis of three criteria’s. Those are ownership,
control and use. On that live he classifies owners, controllers and users. Further he sub-
categories these three. ‘

In that, owners/landlords are comprised of

1. Traditional landlords, who uses land as symbol of status and power. Cultural roots are
strong in sense of ownership they emphasis more on emotive connect than productively
calculations.
2. Enterprising land lords, who look for profits. They invest for return so they apply
innovative method
3. These are the one who has gone mostly for mechanization.
4. Absentee level lords, those who migrate to cities for alternatives source of livelihood
but does not wish to sell the land Therefore they loose interest in land They visit village
only to collect rent They look neither into productivity or into condition of land.
5. Cultural landlords, they are entitled to land through cultural obligations for example
Brahmins are not allowed to plough but are given land for livelihood So they lease out
the land.

Further, controllers are comprised of owner cum controllers, share croppers, tenants. They use
their own labour or hire the labour. Users are comprised of user controller, only user, user
owners etc. for example, Agricultural labourers use land to gratify their needs. Thus
understanding of Indian Agrarian class structure gives the overall dynamic view.
Daniel Thorner. He suggested that one could divide the agrarian population of India into
different class categories by taking three criteria :

1. First of income earned from land (such as, ‘rent’ or fruits of own cultivation or wages’)
2. Second the nature of right held in land (such as, proprietary or ‘tenancy’ or ‘share-
cropping right’ or ‘no right at all’)
3. Third the extent of fieldwork actually performed (such as, ‘absentees who do no work at
all or ‘those who perform partial work’ or ‘total work done with the family labour’ or
work done for others to earn wages’).

On the basis of these criteria he suggested the following model of agrarian class structure in
India;

1. Maliks, whose income is derived primarily from property right in the soil and whose
common interest is to keep the level of rents up while keeping the wage-level
down.They collect rent from tenants, sub-tenants and sharecroppers.
2. Kisans, working peasants, who own small plots of land and work mostly with their own
labour and that of their family members.
3. Mazdoors, who do not own land themselves and earn their livelihood by working as
tenants, sharecroppers or wage labourers with others.

Thorner’s classification of agrarian population has been very popular. Development of

capitalist relations in agrarian sector of the economic has also changed the older class
structure. For example, in most regions of India, the Maliks have turned into enterprising
farmers.Similarly, most of the tenants and sharecroppers among the landless mazdoors have
begun to work as wage labourers.Also, the capitalist development in agriculture has not led to
the kind of differentiation among the peasant as some Marxist analysts predicted On the
contrary, the size of middle level cultivators has swelled.

Utsa Patnaik conducting hes study of agrarian class structure in Haryana finds out 5 classes
from the perspective of labour :

1. Big landlords =Live on hired labour

2. Rich peasants =occasionally use family labour with hired labour
3. Middle peasants = development on family labour
4. Small peasants = sell their labour after finishing their domestic work
5. Agricultural labourers = absolutely live on wage.

This standpoint of Patnaik is supported by Ashok Rudra, Parnak Vardhan and Arvind Narain
Das who look into Agrarian class structure in Punjab, U.P. and Karnataka. Katleen Gough in
the study of Tamil Nadu, from the perspective of capital finds out 5 agrarian classes:

1. Big-bourgeoisie
2. Petty-bourgeoisie
3. Pure-proletariat
4. Medium bourgeoisie
5. Semi-proletariat

Kotovsky has referred to classes like landowners, rich peasants, landless peasantry, and
agricultural labourers.
 1. In the last two decades, some economists have referred to classes of big landholders
(with 10+ hectare land), small landholders (with 2-10 hectare land), marginal
landholders (with less than 2 hectares land), and agricultural labourers.
2. NSSO looks into agrarian class structure on the basis of landholding size. Accordingly, 50
acres and above land holding class is upper class, 10-49 acres land holding as lower
class. However, this simplistic understanding suffer from diverse nature of India. For e.g.
100 acres of infertile land in a Arid region in inferior to10 acres in western Maharashtra
or Punjab where irrigation has strong presence. In many parts of country, landless
people are better off than the lower class i.e. marginal farmers. Therefore, agrarian
class structure can’t be explained on the basis of land holding size.

Ram Krishna Mukherjee has referred to three classes in agrarian structure: landholders and
supervisory farmers, self-sufficient peasantry and share croppers and agricultural labourers.

The classification that has been more popular among the students of agrarian structure and
change in India is the division of the agrarian population given by D.N. Dhanagare into five
classes :

1. Big landlords
2. Big Farmers
3. Middle Farmers
4. Small and Marginal Farmers
5. Landless Labourers.

At the top are the big landlords who still exist in some parts of the country. They own very
large holdings, in some cases even more than one hundred acres. However, unlike the old
landlords, they do not always give away their lands to tenants and sharecroppers.Some of
them organize their farms like modern industry employing a manager and wage labourers and
producing for the market Over the years their proportion in the total population of cultivators
has came down significantly. Their presence is now more in the backward regions of the
country.

1. After big landlords come the big farmers. The size of their land holdings varies from 15
acres to 50 acres or in some regions even more. They generally supervise their farms
personally and work with wage labour. Agricultural operations in their farms are carried
out with the help of farm machines and they use modern farm inputs, such as, chemical
fertilizers and hybrid seeds. They invariably belong to the local dominant castes and
command a considerable degree of influence over the local power structure, both at the
village level as well as at the state level While the big farmers are more visible in the
agriculturally developed regions of the country.
2. The next category is that of the middle farmers who own relatively smaller holdings
(between 5 acres to 10 or 15 acres). Socially, like the big farmers, they too mostly come
from the local dominant caste groups. However, unlike the big farmers, they carry out
most of the work on farms with their own labour and the labour of their families. They
employ wage labour generally at the time of peak seasons, like harvesting and sowing of
the crops. Over the years, this category of cultivators has also begun using modern
inputs, such as, chemical fertilizers and hybrid seeds. Proportionately, they constitute
the largest segment among the cultivators.
3. The small and marginal farmers are the fourth class of cultivators in India. Their holding
size is small (less than five acres and in some cases even less than one acre.). They carry
 out almost all the farm operations with their own labour and rarely employ others to
work on their farms. In order to add their meager earning from cultivation, some of
them work as farm labourers with other cultivators. Over the years, they have also
come to use modern farm inputs and begun to produce cash crop that grown for sale in
the market They are among the most indebted category of population in the India
countryside. As the families grow and holding get further divided, their number has
been increasing in most part of India.
4. The last category of the agrarian population is that of the landless labourers. A large
majority of them belong to the ex-untouchable or the dalit caste groups. Most of them
own no cultivable land of their own. Their proportion in the total agricultural population
varies from state to state. While in the states like Punjab and Haryana they constitute
20 to 30 per cent of the rural workforce, in some states, like Andhra Pradesh, their
number is as high as fifty per cent They are among the poorest of the poor in rural India.
They not only live in miserable conditions with poor housing and insecure of income,
many of them also have to borrow money from big cultivators and in return they have
to mortgage their labour power to them. Though the older type of bondage is no more a
popular practice, the dependence of landless labourers on the big farmers often makes
them surrender their freedom, not only of choosing employer, but invariably of
choosing their political representatives.

CONCLUSION
From the above studies it can be concluded that agrarian class structure in India has emerged
out of multidimensional forces and their bearings in space and time.

Industrial Class Structure in India

Industrial class structure started taking shape during British period During British period in
cities a new industrial and mercantile middle class came into being. There also emerged a new
bureaucratic administrative class. After independence industrial class took a new shape. The
effects of industrialization have been

1. The percentage of workers engaged in agricultural has come down while that of works
engaged in individual activities has gone up.
2. The process of social mobility has accelerated
3. Trade unions have organized industrial workers to fight for their rights.
4. Since industrial workers maintain continued and close and relationship with their kin-
groups and castes, caste stratification has an affected class character
5. The traditional and charismatic elite have been replaced by the professional elite.

Morris D. Morris has referred to two view points regarding the behaviour pattern of the
industrial labour.

1. One view is the labour being short in industry, employers had to scramble for their
workforce and make all sorts of concessions which weakened their hold on workers. The
workers frequently returned to their villages to which they were very much attached
2. The other view talks of surplus of labour available villages for the urban employment
Because of easy availability the employers abused workers unmercifully. Since working
 conditions in the factories were intolerable, the labour was forced to go back to their
villages.
3. Thus, in both views, it was held that workers retained their links with villages which
limited the supply of labour for industrial development As a consequence, proletarian
type of behaviour did not develop. It also resulted in high rates of absenteeism, labour
turnover and the slow growth of trade unions.

Beside the above features, other features of industrial class workers were also visible.

1. First, the employment of women and children in industries was very limited About 20
and 25 per cent of labour force consisted of women and about 5 per cent of children.
This was because employment of women in night shifts was prohibited and children
below 14 years could not be legally employed
2. Secondly, though it is argued that industry is caste blind because no single caste can
provide an adequate supply of labour and because employees are uninterested in caste
affiliation, yet workers did not permit the employers to employ workers of untouchable
castes.
3. Thirdly, large number of workers in the industries were those who had no significant
claim district in which the industry was located but were returned from different
districts as well as neighbouring states. There were, thus, no geographical barriers
inhibiting the flow of labour into the industry. The rural social structure (joint family
system, etc.) was also not a barrier to one estimate, of the total workers in any industry,
about 25 per cent are local, 10 pr cent come from within 100 kins of industry’s location,
50 per cent from 100 to 750 kins and 15 per cent from more than 750 kins. This shows a
tendency for industry hands to be drawn from increasingly distant areas. All these
features explain the class aspect of industrial labour force in India.

Analyzing the ‘working class’, Holmstrom has said that all workers do not share all interests;
rather they share a few interests only. He has also said that it is necessary to draw a class line
between the organized and the unorganized sector industrial workers.

Joshi (1976) also has said that organized and unorganized sector industrial workers are two
classes with different and conflicting interests. This can be explained on the basis of difference
in four factors wages, working conditions, security and social worlds.

1. The wages depend upon whether the industry is big (more than1,000 workers),small
(250-1,000 workers) or very small (less than 50 workers). In 1973, West Bengal laid
down different minimum wages for above three types of industries.The big industries
pay much more than the small industries because of the economics of scale, unions and
worker’s strong bargaining position. Naturally, the interests of workers depend upon
the type of industry they work in.
2. The working conditions also affect the interests of workers. Workers in industries with
more pleasant conditions, having safety measures and fewer accidents and less noise
and monotony and fatigue, shorter hours, more space, freedom from close control or
harassment, a chance of learning something more, canteens and creches and washing
rooms have different interests from those which do not provide all these amenities. As
such, they work as two different classes of workers.
3. Security and career chances also demarcate two classes of workers. A permanent
worker has not only a job but also a career while the temporary worker is bothered
 more about the security of the job. The permanent worker’s career extends into the
future but the temporary one remains bogged down into the present The former may
plan to improve his job by learning a skill and getting promotion, the latter is terrified of
losing his job if he jobs a union.
4. Lastly, the social worlds also divide workers in two different classes.The ‘Social world’
refers to differences in economic conditions, life chances, mutual aid and dependence
etc.The factory workers in the organized sector have more solidarity ,fewer hostility and
less tensions.Their interests and ideology keep them separate from the ‘outsiders’. Thus
the organized sector workers form a privileged upper class.

Business Elite: Shadow of Industrial Class

An entrepreneurial class or business elite started emerging in India by the middle of the
nineteenth century. Although prior to the British rule a group of enterprising business persons
and traders existed in the country, but the new business elite came into prominence only
during this period. Traditionally, most of the business persons belonged to the trading castes
and communities. But when a new link was established between the Indian economy and that
of Britain, members of some other castes also joined mercantile enterprises. As most of the
business persons mainly worked as middle persons and brokers to British firms.

1. These groups of business persons were primarily commercial agents and not industrial
entrepreneurs. Moreover, they were located mainly in Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai
regions because commercial and industrial activities were concentrated in these
regions.
2. The members of this group mainly belonged to the upper castes. For example,Jains,
Baniyas and Kayashthas had the upper hand over others in Kolkata region, Parsis and
Jains in Mumbai, and in Chennai region, Chettiars controlled such businesses.

During the early part of the twentieth century the Indian industrial entrepreneurs started
competing with the British. Gujrarati, Parsis and Marwari emerged as the dominant groups
among the business elite. Sociological studies have shown two major characteristics of
business elite in Indian in the first place,

Most of them are the members of the traditional trading castes and in this sense there is
continuity with the past tradition.

Secondly, there has been a close link of this group with the nationalist movement in India.
These features, as Yogendra Singh suggests, “Influences as role that the business elite play in
the modernization of Indian society”.

1. The size and role of business elite has phenomenally increased after independence. It
has been primarily because of the expansion of industrial activities during the last few
decades.
2. The industrial business groups now organized their activities on modern scientific lines
and are comparable to their counterparts outside the country. Trained manager
manage their organizations. Thus, a kind of bureaucratic structure has emerged giving
rise to a new class of industrial bureaucrats.
3. The accelerated growth of business elite suggests a significant change in the
entrepreneurial motivation of the people.The group is gradually becoming broad-based
 as members of the diverse social group sand castes are entering into this fold The
industrial development of the backward regions in the country is a pointer to this trend.

Middle Classes in India

Understanding Middle Class in Theory:

1. The classical sociological thinkers, Karl Marx and Max Weber, have written a great deal
on the concept of class. Class was the most important category for Marx in his analysis
of the Western society and in his theory of social change.
2. Marx’s model of class is a dichotomous one. It is through the concept of class that he
explains the exploitation of subordinate categories by the dominants. According to
Marx, in every class society, there are two fundamental classes. Property relations
constitute the axis of this dichotomous system – a minority of ‘non-producers’, who
control the means of production, are able to use this position of control to extract from
the majority of ‘producers the surplus product which is the source of their livelihood
‘Classes’, in the Marxian framework, are thus defined in terms of the relationships of
groupings of individuals to the ‘means of production’. Further in Marx’s model
economic domination is tied to political domination. Control of means of production
yields political control.
3. In this dichotomous model of class structure, the position of the middle class is only
transitional.The middle classes for Marx were the self-employed peasants and the petty
bourgeoisie. They were so described because they continued to own the means of
production they worked with, without employing wage labour. Marx predicted that
these middle classes were destined to disappear as the capitalist system of production
developed. Only the two major classes, proletariat or the working class and the
bourgeoisie or the capitalist class were significant in the Marxian framework of class
relations.
4. The other theorists of class have assigned much more significance to the ‘middle
classes’. Foremost of these have been sociologists like Max Weber, Dahrendorf and
Lockwood.
5. Max Weber though agrees with Marx that classes are essentially defined in economic
terms, his overall treatment of the concept is quite different from that of Marx. Unlike
Marx, he argues that classes develop only in the market economics in which individuals
compete for economic gains. He defines classes as groups of people who share similar
position in a market economy and by virtue of this fact receive similar economic
rewards. Thus class status of a person, in Weber’s terminology, is his “market situation”
or, in other words, his purchasing power. The class status of a person also determines
his ‘life chances,Their economic position or “class situation” determines how many of
the things considered desirable in their society they can buy.
6. Though, like Marx, Weber also uses the criteria of property ownership for defining
classes, his theory provides a much greater scope for a discussion of the middle classes.
He agrees with Marx that the two main classes in capitalist society are the property-
owning classes and non-property-owning classes. However, Weber does not treat all the
non-property owning individuals as belonging to a single class of the proletariats. The
“class situation” of the non-property owners differs in terms of their skills. Those who
possess skills that have a definite ‘market value’ (for example, doctors, engineers and
other professionals) are rewarded better than the unskilled labourers. Thus, their “class
 situation” is different from that of the working class and in the Weberian framework,
they constitute the middle classes. Further, unlike Marx, Weber does not see any
tendency towards polarization of society into two classes. On the contrary Weber
argues that with the development of capitalism, the white-collar ‘middle class’ tends to
expand rather than contract.
7. The later sociologists have tended to follow the Weberian line of thinking is their
discussions and studies on the concept of middle class. Later sociologists have made a
crucial distinction is made in the sociological literature between the “old” middle classes
and “new” middle classes. The term “old” middle class is used in the sense in which
Marx had used the term “petty-bourgeoisie” i.e., those who work with their own means
of production such as traders, independent professionals and farmers.The term “new”
middle class is broadly used to describe the skilled or white-collared workers/ salaried
employees and the self-employed professionals. Even though they do not own the
means of production they work with, they are distinguished from the unskilled blue-
collar workers. Their incomes being much higher than that of the blue-collar workers,
they can lead a lifestyle that is very different from that of the working class.

Rise of Middle Class in India

1. The middle classes emerged for the first time in Western Europe with development of
industrial and urban economy. The term middle class was initially used to describe the
newly emerging class of bourgeoisie/industrial class.And later on the term was used for
social groups placed in-between the industrialist bourgeoise on the one side and the
working classes on the other i.e., the skilled professionals.
2. The historical context of the development of middle classes in India is quite different
from that of the West. It was in the nineteenth century, under the patronage of the
British colonial rule that the middle classes began to emerge in India. Though they
emerged under the patronage of the British rulers, the middle classes played an
important role in India’s struggle for independence from the colonial rule. During the
post-independence period also, the middle classes have been instrumental in shaping
the policies of economic development and social change being pursued by the Indian
State. The British colonial rule in India was fundamentally different from all the earlier
political systems and empires that existed in the sub-continent. The British not only
established their rule over most parts of the sub-continent they also transformed the
economy and polity of the region. Apart from changing the land revenue systems,
they introduced modern industrial economy in the region. They reorganized the
political and administrative structures and introduced Western ideas and cultural
values to the Indian people. As pointed out by B.B. Mishra.
 The peculiar feature that distinguishes the Indian middle classes from their counterpart
in the West is the context of their origin.
 7n the West’, the middle classes emerged basically as a result of economic and
technological change; they were for the most part engaged in trade and industry. In
India, on the contrary, they emerged more in consequence of changes in the system of
law and public administration than in economic-development, and they mainly
belonged to the learned profession”
3. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the colonial rulers had been able to bring a
large proportion of Indian territory under their rule. It was around this time that, after
the success of the Industrial revolution, industrial products from Britain began to flow
into India and the volume of trade between Britain and India expanded. They also
 introduced railways and other modern servicing sectors such as the press and postal
departments. A large number of educated individuals were required to staff these
administrative institutions. It was not possible to get all of them from Britain. So, in
order to fulfil this need, the British opened schools and colleges in different parts of
India, particularly in big cities like Calcutta, Bombay and Madras.
4. Over the years, a new class emerged in India. Apart form those employed in the
administrative jobs of the British government they included independent
professionals, such as lawyers doctors, teachers and journalists. According to B. B.
Mishra membership of this “educated middle class” steadily grew in size during the
second half of the nineteenth century.They were mostly concentrated in urban centres
and largely came from upper caste backgrounds.
5. Apart from the English educated segment, there were also other sections of the Indian
society who could be called the middle classes. The most prominent among prominent
among them were the petty traders/shopkeepers and independent artisans, the social
groups that were called the “old middle classes” in the Western context. Merchants
and artisans had always been separate social strata in the traditional structure of social
stratification in India.As the economy began to change in response to the new
administrative policies of the colonial rulers, many of the merchants moved to newly
emerging towns and cities and became independent traders. This process was further
accelerated during the post independent period.
6. Though limited in its significance, the modern machine-based industry also began to
develop during the colonial period The establishment of railways, during the middle of
the nineteenth century, created conditions for the growth of modern industry in
India. The colonial rulers constructed railways primarily for the transportation of raw
materials required for the British industry overseas. The growing economic activity gave
boost to trade and mercantile activity and some of the local traders accumulated
enough savings and began to invest into the modern industry. The Swadeshi Movement
started by the nationalist leadership gave a boost to the native industry. Apart from
giving employment to the labour force, this industry also employed white-collared
skilled workers. Thus, along with those employed in administrative positions by the
colonial rulers, the white-collared employees of the industrial sector were also a part of
the newly emerging middle classes in India.
7. Though the middle classes in India emerged under the patronage of the British rule
and their members were all educated in the English language and culture, they did not
remain loyal to their masters forever. Members of the middle classes not only became
actively involved in social reform movements, they also began to raise political
questions and in the long run they came to question the legitimacy of the British rule
in India. It was the members of these middle classes who provided leadership to the
movement for independence.As Pawan Kumar Varma points out, ‘The educated
middles-class elite; which provided all the leaders of the National Movement came to
oppose British nde in the name of the most advanced bourgeois democracy;
represented by Britain itself .
8. The Indian National Congress, particularly during its initial years, was dominated by the
professional middle classes.A majority of the active members of the Congress were
lawyers journalists and educationists. Even Mahatma Gandhi, who is known to have
transformed the Indian National Congress into a mass movement, was a lawyer and
typically belonged to the professional middle class. Though Gandhi was able to bring
peasantry and other segments of the Indian society into the fold of the nationalist
movement, the leadership of the Congress party remained middle class and upper caste
 in character. According to Varma the British too were far more comfortable with the
English-knowing, urban-centric middle-class constituents in the Congress than with
the unwashed masses’.
9. Though different sections of the Indian society had participated in the struggle for
freedom from colonial rule, it was the middle classes that took over the institutions of
governance from the colonial rulers. It has been argued that the end of the colonial
rule did not mean a total break from the past Much of the institutional structure that
had developed during the colonial rule continued to work the independence within the
ideology of the new regime.Thus, members of the middle class who were working for
the colonial rulers did not loose much in terms of their position in the institutions of
governance.

Size and Composition

There are no exact figures about the size of this class during the early years of Independence.

1. According to Varma to one estimate, its proportion in the total population was around
ten per cent and like middle classes in other societies it was not an undifferentiated
monolith. It had its unifying features, both in ideology and aspiration, but within this
broadly defining framework it has its segmentations in terms of income, occupation and
education.
2. Apart from the middle classes, on the lower side, of were the vast majority of the
agricultural poor, peasants and the landless. Unskilled and semi-skilled manual workers,
skilled manual workers, petty clerks and employees such as postmen, constables,
soldiers and peons were also outside the middle class domain.
3. At the other end of the scale, the upper classes of the Indian society were the rich
industrialists and capitalists, the big zamindars and members of the princely families. In
between these areas of exclusion, middle classes constituted mostly of officers in the
government services, qualified professionals such as doctors, engineers, college and
university teachers, journalists and white-collared salaried employees in the private
sector.
4. In terms of income, the middle classes are also generally middle income groups. But
income as such is not the only defining criteria. For example, a well to do illiterate petty
trader could not be counted as a member of the middle class. Thus, more than income,
it is education that was considered the common feature of the middle class in different
parts of India.
5. This middle class, during the initial years after independence, was also united by a
certain ideology a commitment to development and nation-building. Knowledge of
English too, was an important characteristic of this class.

Growth of Middle Class after Independence

India’s independence from the colonial rule marked the beginning of a new phase in its history.
The independent Indian State was committed in principle to democratic institutions of
secularism, freedom, justice and equality for all the citizens, irrespective of caste, creed or
religion and at all levels – social, economic and political. To achieve these ends, India
embarked upon the path of planned development. Plans were chalked out for the
development of agricultural, industrial and the tertiary sectors of the economy. There was an
overall attempt to expand the economy in all directions. The Government of India
introduced various programmes and schemes for different sectors of the economy. The
execution of these programmes required the services of a large number of trained personnel.

Apart form the increase in a number of those employed in the government sectors, urban
industrial and tertiary sectors also experienced an expansion. Though compared to many
other countries of the Third World the growth rate of the Indian economy was slower, in
absolute terms the industrial sector grew many folds. Growth in the tertiary sector was more
rapid Increase in population, particularly the urban population, led to a growth in the servicing
industry. Banks, insurance companies, hospitals, hostels, press, and advertisement agencies all
grew at an unprecedented rate, giving employment to a large number of trained professionals.

The next stage of expansion was in the rural areas. Various development programmes
introduced by the Indian State after independence led to significant agricultural growth in
the regions that experienced Green Revolution. Success of the Green Revolution technology
increased productivity of land and made the landowning sections of the Indian countryside
substantially richer. Economic development also led to a change in the aspirations of the rural
people. Those who could afford it started sending their children not only to English-medium
schools but also to colleges and universities for higher studies. Consumption patterns also
began to change. Varma has observed that

1. ‘Material goods hitherto considered unnecessary for the simple lifestyle of a farmer
began to be sought. And lifestyles as yet remote and shunned were emulated.
2. A new class has emerged in rural India that partly had its interests in urban occupations.
The process of agrarian transformation added another segment to the already existing
middle classes.
3. In ideological terms, this “new” segment of the middle classes was quite different from
the traditional middle classes.
4. Unlike the old urban middle classes, this new, “rural middle class” was local and regional
in character. The members of the rural middle class tended perceive their interests in
regional rather than in the nationalist framework.
5. Politically this class has been on forefront of the movements for regional autonomy.

Another new segment of the middle class that emerged during the post-independence period
came from the dalit caste groups. Government policies of positive discrimination and
reservations for members of the ex-untouchable/Schedule castes enabled some of them to get
educated and employed in the urban occupations, mostly in the servicing and government
sector. Over the years, a new dalit middle class has thus also emerged on the scene.

THE NEW MIDDLE CLASS

The emergence of the new middle class is an interesting development in the era of economic
liberalization in India. In a celebrated study of the Indian middle classes, B.B. Mishra has
suggested that the members of the educated professions, such as government servants,
lawyers, college teachers and doctors, primarily constituted the bulk of the Indian middle
classes. He also included the body of merchants, agents of modern trading firms, salaried
executives in banking and trading, and the middle grades of peasant proprietors and renters
under this category. This notion of the middle class has continued for years for the purpose of
examining the role of the middle class in contemporary India.
 1. It has been argued that in the early years of the Independence material pursuits of the
middle class were subsumed in a broader ethical and moral responsibility to the nation
as a whole.A restraint on materialistic exhibition in a poor country was the ideal
reflector in the character of the middle class.
2. Changes have, however, occurred in the basic character of this class. Pawan Varma,
for example, in his book The Great Indian Middle Class has initiated a significant
debate on the declining social responsibility of the Indian middle class. It is in this
context, that the idea of new middle class has been made popular in India.
3. The current culture of consumerism has given rise to the new middle class. The
economic liberalization initiated in India in the 1990s portrays the middle class as a
sizeable market which has attracted the Multinational Corporations (MNCs), images of
the urban middle class in the print media and television contribute to the prevalence of
images of an affluent consumer.
4. The spread of the consumer item such as cell phones, cars, washing machines and
colour televisions has also consolidated the image of a new middle class
culture. Advertising images has further contributed to perception.
5. The new middle class has left behind its dependence on austerity and state
protection. The newness of the middle class rests on its embrace of social practices of
taste and consumption and a new cultural standard Thus, the “newness” of middle class
involves adoption of a new ideology rather than a shift in the social basis of India’s
middle class.
6. Critics of this new middle class have pointed out the negative effects that middle class
consumerism holds in the terms of environmental degradation and growing
indifference towards socioeconomic problems of the country. However, proponents of
liberalization have projected this new middle class as an idealized standard for a
globalizing India.

Conclusive Analysis
Though the middle classes have always been among the most influential segments of the
modern Indian society’ they were never as prominent and visible as they became during the
decade of 1990s, after the liberalization process of the Indian economy began. Introduction of
the new economic policy and increasing globalization of the Indian economy brought the
Indian middle class into new prominence.

The process of globalization has also generated a lot of debate about the actual size of middle
classes in India, their consumption patterns, and the pace of their growth in the years to come.
It has been claimed that the size of middle classes has grown to 20 per cent of the total Indian
population. Some others have put this figure at 30 per cent. Though a large number of Indian
people still live a life of poverty, it is the middle classes that have come to dominate the
cultural and political life in India today.
 Systems of Kinship in India

Lineage and descent in India

In our own society, our consanguinal relatives are always related to us biologically, this is what
we mean, of course, when we loosely call them “blood” relatives. Ego’s recognized
consanguine relatives – the ones to whom he is bound by the kinship system – are, in general
persons to whom he may normally look for emotional support and various kinds of help in case
of need Their importance depends upon the fact that they are few in number as compared
with the whole population of the society. Hence every society limits the circle of ego’s
consanguinal relatives. The principle or set of principles by which ego’s consanguinal relatives
are determined is known technically as ‘Rules of Descent’. There are three basic rules of
descent.

1. In patrilineal descent, each individual automatically becomes a member of any

consanguinal kin group to which his father belongs, but not of those to which his
mother belongs. As a syndrome agnatic is sometimes used and patrilineally related
person is therefore an agnate.
2. In Matrilineal descent, an individual joins the consanguine kin group of his mother, but
not of his father. As a synonym uterine is sometimes used
3. In Bilateral descent, an individual inherits some but not all of his father’s consanguinal
relatives and also the corresponding consanguinal relatives of his mother. In a general
way, the significant relatives in this system are also the close biological relatives; how
far in the ever widening circles of relationship the kin relation is recognized i.e., involves
social obligations will vary somewhat from one bilateral society to another. We tend to
become rather vague about our kinship with relatives beyond first cousins.

Strictly speaking, probably no society is perfectly bilateral. Generally one favours the part lineal
side by taking our names from our fathers.

When a descent is traced from only one parent it is called unilineal descent The most
important consanguinal kin groups associated with unilineal rules of descent the lineage and
sibs. A lineage is the simplest type of unilateral grouping which consists of all the probable
blood relations of one line of descent exclusively. A lineage consists of descendants in one line,
who know their exact genealogical relationships and who recognize obligations to one
another.A lineage is this smaller, more localized and more function-laden than the broad
kinship grouping.

The lineage is only one form of corporate kin group. But there are many kinds of kinship
organization, most can be classified into four major types. Patrilienage, Matrilienage, Clans and
Kindred They differ by virtue of the mode of tracing descent The two widespread modes are
unilineal and bilineal.

Bilineal descent is also known as cognitive descent or omnilinear descent In this case, some
difficulties may arise. The groups formed on this basis are bound to overlap for a start,
according to this arrangement. I am a member of both my mother’s and father’s group. These
could scarcely the groups of permanent territorial residence because it could not be
permanently resident in two groups at once.
The unilineal descent thus has some obvious advantages. First it assigns an individual to the
group only and thus avoids the problem of overlapping groups. The unilineal stops the
indefinite proliferation of inheritors that the bilateral principle demands.

Bilateral is a term used to describe the transmission of decent or of property rights through
male and female parents, without emphasizing one or the other lines.The membership is
loosely defined by the bilateral rules of descent.

Seen in comparative perspective, the kindred have a peculiar feature in that its membership
and duties are defined strictly in relation to a given ego. Unlike lineage and this therefore,
kindred are not mutually exclusive in membership, they overlap one another.The members
have no group activities apart from their several connections with one specific person.

The tenaciousness of weakness of the kindred as a cooperative group points to a more general
fat, namely, the bilateral descent, unlike either kind of unilateral descent, may be best
throughout in negative terms, it amounts to a lack of emphasis on either line of descent and
hence on descent as such.

In every society the rule of descent is important for at least two reasons:

1. It automatically establishes for every individual a network of social positions in which he

participates with obligation and rights.
2. Aside from mutual aid of various kinds, the rights and obligations ascribed on the basis
of descent always include some regulations of marriage and sexual relations.

Descent always prescribes, to some extent inheritance of property, and it often prescribes
succession to titles or rank. Perhaps the most important supplement to descent for the
disposal of property rights at death is: rights established by marriage; rights established by
creditors unpaid before the death of the deceased; inheritance of taxes etc.

MARRIAGE IN INDIA
In almost all societies marriage is an institutionalized social relationship of crucial significance.
It is generally associated with number of other important social relationship.There are
different types of marital union. These have implications for population composition, property
relations, inheritance etc. Further, there are various regulations and prohibitions associated
with marriage and sexual relations in various cultures. Marriage is more than simply a legalized
sexual union between a man and a women; it is socially acknowledged and approved In India,
people generally believe that marriage is not between two individuals, but it is between two
families in terms of bonds it creates between them. Certainly marriage provides recognition of
legitimacy to children; it confers acknowledged social status on the offspring, and this is
important in terms of inheritance and succession.

1. Marriage is perceived by sociologists as a system of roles of a man and a woman whose

union has been given social sanction as husband and wife.The equilibrium of the system
requires adjustment between the two partners so that the role enactment of one
(partner) corresponds to the role expectations of the other (Robert 0′ Blood).
2. Indologists look upon Hindu marriage as a sanskara, having three objects of dharma
(fulfilment of religious duties), rati (sex gratification),and praja (procreation). Marriage
 performed for dharma was called dharmik marriage, while one performed for sexual
pleasures was regarded as adharmik marriage.

Marriage was considered sacred because of several reasons :

1. Dharma was the highest aim of marriage,

2. Rites were performed before sacred god Agni by reciting mantras from sacred scriptures
Vedas by a sacred Brahman,
3. Union (between man and woman) was considered indissoluble and irrevocable;
4. Emphasis was on chastity of the woman and faithfulness of the man. Even today, the
sanctity of the marriage is recognized by Hindus in spite of the fact that marriage is
performed for companionship and not for performing duties, and whenever found a
failure, it is dissolved by divorce.
5. Mutual fidelity and devotion to partner are still considered to be the essence of
marriage. Kapadia (1966) has said: “Hindu marriage continues to be a sacrament; only it
is raised to an ethical plane.”

In other words, marriage in Hindu culture is a spiritual union between a man and a woman for
spiritual realization.

Hindu culture also recognizes besides the above-mentioned Brahma marriage seven other
forms of marriage with lesser and lower ideals.

1. The four of these marriages – Gandharva (entering into sex before getting the social
sanction of society), Asura (eloping with a woman), Rakshasya (forcibly abducting a
woman from her home) and Paisacha (Man molesting a girl when she is asleep or
intoxicated or in a state of unbalanced mind) – had such a low ideal that they were
termed as Adharmik marriages.
2. The remaining three – Daiva (woman is married to a priest, a man of intellect and
money, belonging to an aristocratic class), Prajapatiya (entering wedlock for biological
function of sex satisfaction and having children) and Arsha (women marrying a man of
intellect and character (sage who is reluctant to enter marriage, so that she may get
intelligent progeny and good home environment) – were given the label of Dharmik
marriages.

The main reason for recognizing the four Adharmik marriages as marriages was to confer the
respectful
status of a wife on the ‘injured’ women.

Mate Selection and Rules of Marriage :

According to Kapadia the question of mate selection in marriage today involves three
important issues namely the field of selection, the party to selection, and the criteria of
selection. Preferential code, prohibiting restrictions, endogamy and exogamy explain the field,
the party, and the criteria of selection of mates for marital alliance. Besides these rules which
limit the field of selection in marriage, caste exercises a tremendous control over its members
by imposing penalties on the defaulting members. With a view to grant freedom to a person in
selection of marriage partner outside ones caste, many Acts were enacted Despite these legal
enactments, exclusivity of caste groups remains a hard fact even today.
The regulation of mate selection in Hindu society is subsumed under the concepts of
endogamy, exogamy and hypergamy

1. Endogamy is a social rule that requires a person to select the spouse from within the
caste and sub caste,
2. Exogamy forbids selection from gotra and sapinda (i.e., cousins like chachera, mamera,
phuphera and mausera); and
3. According to hypergamy, a boy from the upper caste can marry a girl from the lower
caste and vice versa.
4. In early society, caste endogamy was functional because it preserved the occupational
secrets of the caste, maintained the solidarity of the caste and checked decrease in the
membership or strength of the caste.
5. In the present society, though it makes marital adjustment easier, yet it has proved to
be dysfunctional in some ways since it creates inter-caste tensions which adversely
affect the political unity of the country, makes field of mate-selection limited and
circumscribed, and creates problems of dowry, child marriage, etc.

The exogamous taboos, according to Valvalkar, were designed for restricting free marital
relations between parents and off spring and between siblings. RV. Kane has maintained that
exogamous restrictions were imposed for preventing transmission of family defects through
heredity and for the fear that there may be clandestine love affairs and consequent loss of
morals.

However, these arguments are not accepted today for the reasons that decay of lineage is not
reported among non-Hindu communities (Muslims) who practice cousin marriages. Kapadia
has said that the rule of sapinda exogamy was of the nature of a pious recommendation and
remained so till the end of the eighth century. Today, though this rule is followed by and large
by all Hindus, yet cases of cousin marriages are not unknown.

Present Situation

1. While earlier mates for children were selected by parents, now children believe in joint
selection by parents and children, though cases of individual selection (i.e., selection by
children themselves) are not rare.
2. The criteria of selecting mates by parents are quite different from those of children.
Parents give importance to family status, sanskara, caste, dowry and so forth.
3. Children give importance to education, character, physical appearance, equipment and
skills, etc.
4. The joint selection today keeps in mind the needs of the family as well as the interests
of the person acquiring a spouse.
5. Many studies conducted by scholars like B.V. Shah, Margaret Cormack, Vimal Shah, etc.,
showed that a very large number of young boys and girls wanted to select their mates in
consultation with parents.

CHANGES IN HINDU MARRIAGE SYSTEM

Changes in marriage system among Hindus may be analyzed in seven areas :

1. Object of marriage : Traditionally Hindu marriage treated as a sanskara, having three

objects of dharma (fulfilment of religious duties), rati (sex gratification), and praja
 (procreation). Marriage performed for dharma is called dharmik marriage. Marriage was
a social duty toward the family and the community, and such little individual interest
Traditionally Hindu marriage is a sacrament But today situation has undergone sea
change. Many legislations i.e., Hindu Marriage Act of 1955, socio cultural awakening,
education, and urban employment etc., have weakened the sacred ethos and objectives
of Hindu marriage.
2. Process of mate selection : Changes mentioned in the above box.
3. Form of marriage : Changes in the form of marriage refers to change from polygyny to
monogamy and prevalence of both hypogamy and hypergamy marriages.
4. Change in age at marriage: It refers to change from pre-puberty marriages to post-
puberty marriages. It is realized that pre-puberty marriage harmful on health grounds
and also result into higher number of widowhood Education and employment are
considered more or less as valuable for girls as for boys. Hypergamy and concomitant
constrain on dowery also contribute to increase in age at marriage. In other words,
change in the outlook, values and increased awakening as cultural factors and
education, occupation, migration and dowery as structural factors have contributed to
change in age at marriage.
5. Economic aspect of marriage (dowry) : The Anti-Dowry Act,1961, has made giving and
taking dowry as a legal offence.
6. Stability of marriage (divorce) : Hindu Marriage Act of 1954 and 1955 prohibit bigamy
and permit divorce also on various grounds.
7. Widow remarriage : The Widow Remarriage Act, 1856 permits widows to remarry but
forfeits them the right of maintenance from the property of the first husband.Various
laws were laws enacted in India relate to age at marriage, field of mate selection,
number of spouses in marriage, dissolving marriage, dowry and remarriage.

The important legislations relating to these aspects are :

1. The Child Marriage Act,1954, dealing with age at marriage, freedom to children to
marry without parental consent, bigamy, and dissolving marriage,
2. The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, amended in 1986, and dealing with age at marriage with
parents consent, bigamy and annulment of marriage.
3. The first three Acts (of 1929, 1954 and 1955) pertaining to the age of marriage prescribe
the marriage age of girls as 18 years and for boys as 21 years. The difference in the Acts
is that the 1929 Act (amended in 1978} does not invalidate the marriage for violating
the provisions in the Act It only prescribes punishment for the bridegroom, parents,
guardians and the priest (but not for violation of the age provision. The l955 Act
converse marriage performed with the consent of parents but the1954 Act covers
marriages performed through courts, with or without the parental consent Both these
Acts (1954 and 1955) prohibit bigamy and permit divorce also on various grounds and
put restriction on marriage within the degrees of prohibited relationships, unless
custom permits such marriages.
4. The Widow Remarriage Act, 1856 permits widows to remarry but forfeits them the right
of maintenance from the property of the first husband.
5. The Hindu Succession Act, 1956, has given share to wife and daughters in mans property
equal to that of sons and brothers.

We agree that social legislation is necessary for providing new direction to culture and society
and permitting change and removing evils by filing up the gap between social opinion and
social needs of the people. Dr. Radhakrishnan, at the time of introducing the bills related to
marriage in 1952, said: “The ancient history cannot solve the problems of modem society.The
function of the social legislation is to adjust the legal system continually to a society which is
constantly outgrowing that system. While social legislation is essential the will to implement it
is more crucial.

MARRIAGE AMONG MUSLIMS

It is said that marriage among Muslims is more of a contract rather than a sacrament like
Hindus. Muslim marriage, called nikah, is considered to be a civil contract Its important
objectives are control over sex, procreation of children and perpetuation of family, upbringing
of children, and ordering of domestic life. S.C. Sarkar also maintains that marriage among
Muslims is a civil contract.

But it will be wrong to say that Muslim marriage has no religious duty. It is devotion and an act
of ibadat But it is surely not a sacrament like Hindus. Muslim society is stratified among
different groups i.e.,Shias and Sunnis, Ashraf, Azlaf etc. All these groups are endogamous and
inter-marriages among them are condemned and discouraged.

Features of Muslim marriage

1. Proposal and its acceptance : The proposal is made by the bridegroom to the bride just
before the wedding ceremony in the presence of two witnesses and a Maulvi (priest).
For recognizing marriage as sahi (regular), it is necessary that both the proposal and its
acceptance must be at the same meeting. Not doing so makes marriage ‘fasid’
(irregular) but not batil (invalid).
2. Capacity to contract marriage, doctrine of equality The doctrine of equality refers to
marriage with a person of low status.Such marriages are looked down upon.Similarly,
runaway marriages (called kifa) are also not recognized
3. Preference system : The preferential system refers to giving preference first to parallel
(chachera and mausera cousin and then to cross-cousin (only mamera but not
phuphera). But these days, cousin marriages are discouraged.
4. Mahar (dower) custom in marriage refers to money which a wife is entitled to get from
her husband in consideration of marriage. Mahar can be specified (fixed) or proper
(consider reasonable). It can also be prompt (payable on husband’s death or divorce) or
deferred At one time, the Muslims had a practice of muta (temporary) marriage but that
practice has been abolished now.
5. Divorce (talaq) in Muslim society can be given with or without the intervention of the
court. A woman can divorce her husband only through the court but a man can divorce
his wife without approaching the court and by making a single pronouncement during
one tuhr (one menstruation period) i.e., one month called Talaqu-e-Ahasan or three
pronouncements in three tuhrs (called Talaq-e-Hasan) or three pronouncements in a
single tuhr (called Talaq-e-Ulbidat). In addition to these three types of divorce, there are
three other kinds of divorce too: ilia, zihar, and lian.
6. In ilia, the husband swears by Allah (God) to abstain from sexual relations with his wife
for a period of four or more months or for a specified period After making ilia, if he
really abstains from sexual inter course, the marriage is considered to be dissolved
 7. In zihar, the husband declares in the presence of two witnesses that his wife is like a
mother to him. Zihar does not dissolve the marriage but it provides a ground to the wife
to sue her husband for divorce.
8. In lian, the husband accuses his wife of adultery. This provides ground to wife to
approach the court for divorce. Divorce given by mutual consent of husband and wife is
called khula (initiated at the instance of the wife) or mubarat (initiative coming from
wife or husband).

After divorce, the wife is not entitled to get maintenance allowance from her husband
However, about fifteen years ago, the Supreme Court allowed maintenance allowance to one
Shah Bano. Since this decision was questioned by the Muslim leaders, describing it as
interference the Muslim Personal Law, the government had to amend the legislation. In
February 1993, the Uttar Pradesh High Court also ordered the payment of maintenance
allowance to one Hameedan and her two children. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board
then filed a review petition in the High Court.

All these features point out the difference between the Hindu and the Muslim marriage in
terms of aims and ideals of marriage, nature of marriage, characteristics of marriage and
dissolving marriage. It is now contended that the belief that Muslims practice polygyny and
easy divorce in large numbers is a misconception. The number of Muslims who have more than
one wife is negligible now. There are more cases of bigamy amongst Hindus. Likewise there are
more divorces among Hindus and Sikhs than among Muslims.

Marriage Among Christians

As among Hindus and Muslims, we find stratification among Christians too. The two groups in
which Christians are divided are: Protestants and Catholics. The later are further subdivided as
Latin and Syrian Christians. All these groups and sub-groups are endogamous.

1. The main object of marriage among Christians, as among Hindus and Muslims, is to get
social sanction for sex relations and procreation.
2. Further, religion also has great significance in Christian marriage. Christians believe that
marriage takes place because of the will of God, and after marriage man and woman
submerge themselves in each other.
3. The three objects of Christian marriage are believed to be procreation, escape from
fornication (sex relations without marriage), and mutual help and comfort.
4. The marriage partners are selected either by parents, or by children, or jointly by
parents and children. However, in 9 out of 10 cases, selection is made and marriage is
settled by parents.While selecting partners, the focus is on avoiding blood relations, and
giving importance to social status of family, character, education, physical fitness, etc.
5. Restrictions on consanguinity and affinity among Christians and Hindus are almost the
same. Christians have no practice of ‘preferred persons’ like the Muslims.After the
engagement ceremony, the formalities to be fulfilled before the marriage are:
producing a certificate of character, and submitting an application for marriage in the
church three weeks before the due date. The church pretest then invites objections
against the proposed marriage and when no objection is received marriage date is fixed
The marriage is solemnized in the church and the couple declares that they take each
other as wedded partner in the presence of two witnesses and in the name of Lord
Christ.
6. Christians do not permit polygyny and polyandry.
 7. Christians practice divorce too, though the church does not appreciate it. The Indian
Divorce Act, 1869 refers to the conditions under which divorce may be obtained The Act
covers dissolution of marriage, declaring marriage null and void decree of judicial
separation and restitution of conjugal rights.
8. There is no practice of dowry or dower among Christians. Remarriage of widows is not
only accepted but also encouraged
9. Thus, Christian marriage is not a sacrament like Hindu marriage but is a contract
between a man and a woman life. Muslim marriage in which there is greater stress on
companionship.

It is necessary that till a uniform civil code is enacted the Divorce Act of Christians, which is a
century and a quarter old be amended and certain new laws passed For example, the grounds
for divorce are too limited and harsh. Even as between husband and wife, there is
discrimination in as much as the husband as simply to prove adultery whereas the wife has to
prove another matrimonial offence along with adultery for getting relief. Even when both
parties wish on mutual consent basis to separate and the court are convinced that living
together is impossibility, no relief can be given. The wife is considered to be a property of the
husband as the provision in the Divorce Act entitles a husband to claim damages from the
wife’s adulterer.

Types of Kinship System in India

The kinship system, that is, the way in which relations between individuals and groups are
organized, occupies a central place in all human societies. Marriage is a link between the
family of orientation and the family of procreation. This fact of individual membership in two
nuclear families gives rise to kinship system. Theodorson has defined Kinship as “a social
relationship based upon family relatedness’. The relationship which may be consanguine
based on blood relation or affinal, based on marriage, determines the rights and obligations
of related persons. As such, kinship system is referred to as “a structured system of statuses
and roles and of relationship in which the kin (primary, secondary, tertiary and distant) are
bound to one-another by complex interlocking ties”.

After family, kinship group plays a very crucial role in daily life, rituals and social ceremonies
of Hindus. People turn to their kin not only for help in exigencies of life but also on regular
occasions. The important kinship groups, after the family, are Vansa (lineage) and gotra (clan).
Vansa is a consanguineous unilateral descent group whose members trace themselves from a
known and real common ancestor. It may be either patrilineal or matrimonial and is an
exogamous unit. The members of a vansa are treated as brothers and sisters. Lineage ties
remain up to few generations only. The main linkage among the families of a lineage is
common participation in ritual functions like birth, death etc. The vansa passes into gotra
which though is a unilateral kin group but is larger than the lineage. It is an exogamous group.

The kinship features in North and Central India differ from those in South India. The socio-
cultural correlates of kinship system are language caste and (plain and hilly) region. In spite of
the effect of these three factors in the kinship relations, it is possible to talk of kinship
organization on some collective basis, e.g., on caste and zonal basis.

1. Northern Zone : The northern zone consists of the Sindhi, Punjabi, Hindi (and Pahari),
Bihari, Bengali, Assami and Nepali. Though kinship behaviour in the northern zone
 changes slightly from region to region and within each region from caste to caste, yet
comparative study shows that it is possible to talk of an ‘ideal’ northern patterns
referring to practices and attitudes generally found to be common among a majority of
the castes. Iravati Karve has given some important features of the kinship organization
of the northern zone:
 In these areas caste endogamy, clan exogamy and incest taboos regarding sexual
relations between primary kins are strictly observed Marriage among close kin is not
permitted.
 Kin junior to ego are addressed by their personal names and senior to ego by the kinship
term.
 All children in ascending and descending generations are equated with one’s own sibling
group (brothers and sisters) and all children of one’s sibling group are again equated
with one’s own children.
 The principle of unity of generations is observed (for example, great-grandfather and
grandfather are given same respect as father).
 Within the same generation, the older and the younger kin are kept distinct
 The duties and behaviour patterns of the members of three generations are strictly
regulated
 Some of the ancient kinship terms having Sanskrit origin have been replaced by new
terms, for example, pitamaha is replaced by pita. Suffix ‘ji’ is added to kinship terms
used for kin older than the speaker for example, chachaji, tauji, etc. In Bengal instead of
‘ji’ suffix ‘moshai’ is added
 After marriage, a girl is not expected to be free with her parents-in-law, but when she
becomes a mother, she achieves position of respect and power and restrictions on her
are lessened
 The family is so structured that children, parents and grand-parents either live together
or social kinship obligations towards them are clearly met.
 Apart from the joint family which represents a person’s intimate and nearest circle of
relations, there is always a larger circle of kin who play a part in his life. These kindred
represent the circle of his patri-kin or matri-kin that may stand by him and help him
when the immediate family no longer suffices.
2. Central Zone :The central zone comprises the linguistic regions of Rajsthan, Madhya
Pradesh, Gujrat and Kathiawar, Maharashtra and Orissa with their respective languages.
All the languages of this region are of Sanskritic origin, and therefore, they have affinity
with the northern zone. But there are pockets of Dravidian languages in this region.
There is also impact of the eastern zone. Tribal people have there unique and somewhat
different position compared to other people. The salient features of kinship
organization of the Central India are not much different from those of the North
India. The important features of kinship in Central India are:
 Cross cousin marriages are prevalent which are not witnessed in the north zone.
 Every region follows northern India practices of marriage, that is, consanguinity is the
main consideration which rules marriage.
 Many castes are divided into exogamous clans. Among some castes, the exogamous
clans are arranged in hypergamous hierarchy.
 The kinship terminology shows intimacy and closeness between various kin.The
relations between kin are governed by the custom of ‘neota gifts’ according to which
cash-gift is given equivalent to cash-gift received. The neota-registers are maintained
and preserved for generation.
 In Gujarat, mamera-type of cousin marriage with mother’s brother and levirate
(marriage with husband’s brother) are practiced by some caste.
 The custom of periodic marriages in Gujarat has led to child marriages as well as
unequal marriages. Such marriages are practiced even today.
 In Maharashtra, there is impact of both modern and southern zones in kinship relations.
For example, the clan organization of the Marathas is similar to that of the Rajputs
which is arranged in a ladder manner. Clans are grouped into divisions and each division
is named according to the number of clans it comprises; for example panch-kuli, sat-kuli,
etc. The clans are arranged in hypergamous order, the highest being the panchkuli,
followed by the sat-kuli, etc. The panch-kuli can marry among themselves or can take a
girl from the sat-kuli etc., but do not give their daughters outside the panch-kuli.
 Some castes like Marathas and Kunbis in the central zone practice bride-price too,
though dowry custom also exists among them.
 Though the family system in Maharashtra is patrilineal and patrilocaL yet unlike in the
north, where a wife permanently stays with her husband after gauna and rarely goes to
her father’s house. In castes like Marathas, she moves to and from her father’s house
very frequently. Once she goes to her father’s house, it is difficult to get her back to her
husband’s house. This shows the impact of the south on relations with kin.
 Though the kinship terms are mostly northern yet some terms are borrowed from the
Dravidians in the south; for example, use of the term anna and nana for brother along
with term dada. Similarly, use of term akka, tai and mai for sister.
 The kinship system of the tribals in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh is somewhat
different from that of the caste Hindus. The difference exists in terms of kinship
terminology, marriage rules, inheritance system and clan obligations.
 Thus, Karve states that, though the kinship organization in the northern and central
zone is almost similar, yet it can be described as a region of transition from the north to
the south. A state like Maharashtra is a region of cultural borrowings and cultural
synthesis.
3. Eastern Zone: The eastern zone is not compact and geographically not contiguous like
other zones. In Eastern Zone, kinship organization is different Besides northern
languages, Mundari and Monkhmer languages are also spoken. The area consists of a
number of Astro-Asiatic tribes.There are more tribes than caste Hindus in eastern India.
The more important tribes are: Khasi, Birhor, Ho, Mundas and raon. The kinship
organization here has no one pattern.
 People speaking Mundari languages have patrilineal patrilocal families. However, joint
families are rare in this zone.
 Khasis have joint family with common worship and common graveyard but the husband
and wife live together in a small house of there own. People maintain patri-clan
relations by common worship of ancestors and residence.They extend help to each
other but live independent life.
 Cross-cousin marriages are rarely practiced though bride-price is common.Service by
the would-be husband in girl’s fathers house is also considered as bride price.
 Kinship terminology is borrowed both from Sanskrit and Dravidian languages. Garo also
have matrilineal joint family system like Nairs in the south. After marriage, a man rarely
lives with his parents and establishes a separate house.
4. Southern Zone: There are five regions in this zone – Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil
Nadu, Kerala, and the regions of mixed languages and people. The southern zone
presents a complicated pattern of kinship system.Though patrilineal and patrilocal
family is the dominant family type for the greater number of castes and communities,
 for example, Namboodris, there are important sections of population which are
matrilineal and matrilocal for example, Nayars, Tiyans. There are quite a few castes
whose systems possess features of both matrilineal and matrilineal organizations, for
example, Todas. Similarly, there are some castes/tribes who practices only polygyny, for
example, Asari, Nayarsand yet others, who practice both polygyny and polyandry, for
example, Todas. Similarly, there are patrilineal joint families and also matrilineal joint
families. All this shows varied patterns in kinship organizations in southern zone.

In the matrilineal family, the kinship relationship of women to one another is that of a
daughter, mother, sister, mother’s mother, mother’s sister, and sister’s daughter. In the
kinship relationship of women with men, males are related to women as brother, son,
daughter’s son, and sister’s son. The kinship relationship of males to one another is that of
brother, mother’s brother and sister’s son. All these kinship relations are based on blood
There are no relations by marriage. This is because husband visits the family occasionally.
We, therefore, find :

1. Absence of companionship between husband and wife and absence of closeness

between father and children; and
2. There is complete independence of women as regards their livelihood; they do not
partake of the earnings of their husband.
 This is how some southern families differ from the northern families.

The Nayars, the Tiyans, some Moplas in Malabar region and the Bants in Kanara district have
matrilineal
and matrilocal family, and it is called Tharawad The important characteristics of Tharawad are :

1. The property of Tharawad is the property of all males and females belonging to it
2. Unmarried sons belong to mother’s Tharawad but married sons belong to their wife’s
Tharawad
3. Manager of Tharawad’s property is oldest male member in the family; called Karnavan.
Kamavan is an absolute ruler in the family. On his death, the next senior male member
becomes Karnavan. He can invest money in his own name, can mortgage property, can
give money on loan, can give land as gift, and is not accountable to any member in
respect of income and expenditure.
4. When Tharawad becomes too large and unwieldy, it is divided into Tavazhis. A Tavazhi
in relation to a woman is a group of persons consisting of a female, her children, and all
her descendants in the female line.
5. In southern zone there is a system of caste endogamy and clan exogamy similar to
northern system. A caste is dived into five exogamous clans. Few characteristics of clan
organization are:
6. Each clan, which is composed of a number of families, uses some symbols for there clan.
The main symbols used for clans are of silver, gold axe, elephant, snake, jasmine, stone
etc.
7. A person from one clan can seek a spouse from any other clan except his own. However,
this choice is theoretical because of the rule of exchange of daughters.
8. In marriages, there is not only the rule of clan exogamy but also of family exchange of
daughters.
9. Because of the marriage rule of exchange of daughters, many kinship terms are
common. For example, the term used for nanad (HuSi) is also used for bhabhi; the term
 used for sala (WiBr) is also used for bahnoi (SiHu); the term used for sasur (HuFa) is also
used for bhabhi’s father (BrWiFa).
10. Marriage between maternal parallel cousins, that is, between children of two sisters, is
not permissible.
11. Sororate marriage (that is, marriage with wife’s younger sister) is practiced Also, two
sisters can marry two brothers in one family.
12. There is a system of preferential mating in the south. In a large number of castes, the
first preference is given to elder sister’s daughter, second preference to father’s sister’s
daughter, and third preference to mother’s brother’s daughter. However, today cross-
cousin marriage and especially the uncle-niece marriage is beginning to be considered
as outmoded and a thing to be ashamed of among those groups which have come in
contact with the northern Indians or with western culture.
13. The taboos prescribed for marriage are: a man cannot marry his younger sister’s
daughter, a widow cannot marry her husband’s elder or younger brother, that is,
levitate is a taboo; and a man cannot marry his mother’s sister’s daughter.
14. Marriage is dependent on the chronological age differences rather than the principle of
generational divisions as in the north. One example is that the marriage of grandfather
and granddaughter is possible in south.
15. Yet, another feature of marriage and kinship in the south is that marriage is not
arranged with a view to widening a kin group but each marriage strengthens already
existing bonds and makes doubly near those people who were already very near kin.
16. A girl has to marry a person who belong to the groups older than her, that is, tan-mum,
and also to the group younger than her, that is, tam-mum, and also to the group
younger than her parents, that is, she can marry any of her older cross-cousins. A boy
must marry in a tan-pin group and to one who is a child of group of tam-mum.
17. The dichotomy of status and sentiments expressed in such northern terms like kanya
(unmarried girl), bahu (married girl), pihar (mother’s house) and sasural (husband’s
house) are absent in south. This is because in south, a girl after marriage does not enter
the house of strangers as in mother. One’s husband is one’s mother’s brother’s son and
so on. Marriage in the south, thus, does not symbolize separation from father’s house
for a girl A girl moves freely in her father-in-law’s house.

Comparison of Kinship System of North and South India :

1. In a southern family, there is no clear-cut distinction between the family of birth, that is,
family of orientation and family of marriage, that is, family of procreation as found in
the northern family. In the north, no member from Ego’s family of orientation can
become a member of his family of marriage; but this is possible in the south.
2. In the north, an Ego (person under reference/study) has some kin who are his blood
relatives only and others who are his affinal. In the south blood relatives are affinal kin
at the same time.
3. In the south, organization of kin is arranged according to age categories in the two
groups, that is, older than Ego (tam-mun) and younger than Ego (lam-pin) (tain is ‘self’,
mun is ‘before’ and pin is ‘after’).
4. In the south, kinship organization is dependent on the chronological age differences
while in the north, it is dependent on the principle of generational divisions.
5. No special norms of behaviour are evolved for married girls in the south whereas in the
north, many restrictions are imposed on them.
 6. Marriage does not symbolize woman’s separation from her father’s house in the south
but in the north, a woman becomes a casual visitor to her parent’s family.
7. In the north, marriage is to widen the kinship group while in the south it is to strengthen
already existing bonds.

At the end, it can be concluded that both rigidity and flexibility exist side by side in regard to
values and norms related to kinship systems. These are reflected in regard to divorce, widow
remarriage, incest taboos, caste endogamy, rule of avoidance, family structure, systems of
lineage and residence, authority system, succession and inheritance of property etc. The
kinship organization in India is influenced by caste and language. In this age of sharp
competition for status and livelihood a man and his family must have kin as allies. Caste and
linguistic groups may help an individual from time to time but his most staunch, trustworthy
and loyal supporters could only be his nearest kin. It is, therefore, necessary that a person
must not only strengthen his bonds with kin but should also try to enlarge his circle of kin.
Cousin marriages, preferential mating, exchange rules and the marriage norms which
circumvent the field of mate selection are now so changing that kinship relations through
marriage are being extended and a person is able to get their help in seeking power and the
status lift that power can bring. Kinship continues to be a basic principle of social organization
and mobilization on the one hand and division and dissension on the other. It is a complex
phenomenon, and its role can be sensed even in modern society.

Family and Marriage in India

Family in India is an institution and a foremost primary group because it is the sheet anchor of
the patriarchal authority on the one hand and a protector and defender of individual members
right to property on the other. Despite wide ranging changes in Indian society, because of
synthesis of collectivism and individualism, the Hindu family continues to be important social
institution. Several studies on family have revealed that industrialization, urbanization,
education, and migration have not necessarily resulted in nuclearisation of family in India. Even
a nuclear family in India is not simply a conjugal family. A real change in family must refer to
changed pattern of kinship relations, obligations of members towards each other,
individualization etc.

The word family is used in several different ways. A. M. Shah outlines at least four inter-
related social situations of family life in India. These are:

1. The body of persons who live in one house or under one head including parent,
children, servants etc.
2. The group consisting of parents and their children whether living together or not In
wide sense all those who are related by blood and affinity.
3. Those descended or claiming descent from a common ancestor; a house; kindred or
lineage.

Generally a family consists of a man, his wife and their children. This is known as elementary
family. Such a family could be an independent unit, it could also be a part of joint or
extended family, without necessarily residing together. An elementary family consists of
members of two generations, that of ego and his offspring’s. Such a family may share
property in common with other such units of the ego’s brother’s family. According to Shah,
an elementary family could be both, a complete one and an incomplete one. A complete
elementary family consists of husband, wife and their unmarried children. In an incomplete
family some and not all persons are found.

Joint Family in India

There has been a lot of debate about nature of joint family in India. The definition given by
Iravati Karve can be taken as starting point for analyzing changes in family in India.According to
Iravati Karve, the traditional ancient Indian family was joint in terms of residence, property and
function. She has given five characteristics of joint family: common residence, common
kitchen, common property, common family worship, and some kinship relationship. On this
basis, she defines joint family as “a group of people, who generally live under one roof, eat
food cooked at one hearth, hold property in common, participate in common family worship
and are related to each other as some particular type of kindred”. The word ‘common’ or ‘joint
property’ here (according to the Hindu Succession Act,1956) means that all the living male and
female members up to three generations have a share in the paternal property.

1. According to I.P. Desai, co-residence and common kitchen are not as important
dimensions of joint family as intra-family relationships are. He thinks that when two
families having kinship relationship are living separately but function under one
common authority, it will be a joint family. He calls it functional joint family. He calls
a traditional joint family as one which consists of three or more generations. He calls
two-generation family as a marginal joint family.
2. Ramakrishna Mukherjee while giving five types of relations- conjugal parental – filial
inter-sibling, lineal and affinal – has maintained that a joint family is a co-resident and
commensal kin-group which consists of one or more of the first three types of relations
and either lineal and/or affinal relations among the members.
3. K.M. Kapadia has given five types of family: nuclear (husband, wife and unmarried
children), nuclear with married sons and nuclear family with a dependant (widowed
sister, etc.)
4. M.S. Gore has said that a joint family should be viewed as “a family of co-parceners and
their dependants” instead of viewing it as a multiplicity of nuclear families. He holds
that in a nuclear family, the emphasis is on filial and fraternal relationships. According to
Gore, joint family is of three types, filial joint family (parents and their married sons with
their offspring), fraternal joint family (two married brothers and their children) and filial
and fraternal (combined) joint family.

In any case, in structural sense joint family implies living together of members of two or more
elementary both lineally and laterally.When joint family consists of grandparents, parents and
grandsons and daughters, it is called a lineal joint family. When married brothers along with
their wives and offspring live together, it is known as lateral joint family. Besides patrilineal
joint family, there is also matrilineal joint family.

The characteristics of joint family :

1. It has an authoritarian structure, i.e., power to make decisions lies in the hands of the
head of the family (patriarch).Contrary to the authoritarian family, in a democratic
family, the authority is vested in one or more individuals on the basis of competence
and ability.
 2. It has familistic organization, i.e., individual’s interests are subordinated to the interests
of the family as a whole, or the goals of the family are the goals of the individual
members.
3. Status of members is determined by their age and relationship: The status of a man is
higher than his wife; in two generations, the status of a person in the higher generation
is higher than the status of a person in the lower generation; in the same generation,
the status of a person of higher age is higher than the status of a person of lower age;
and the status of a woman is determined by the status of her husband in the family.
4. The filial and fraternal relationship gets preference over conjugal relationship, i.e.,
husband-wife relationships is subordinated to father-son or brother-brother
relationship.
5. The family functions on the ideal of joint responsibility. If a father takes loan to marry
his daughter, it is also the responsibility of his sons to repay the loan.
6. All members get equal attention. A poor brother s son will be admitted to the same
school (even if costly) as rich brother’s son.
7. The authority in the family (between men and men, men and women, and women and
women) is determined on the principle of seniority. Though the eldest male (or female)
may delegate the authority to someone else yet even this delegation is based on the
principle of seniority, which limits the scope for the emergence of individualism.

Changing Pattern of Family in India

Changes in the family are mainly concerned with the changes in structure and interaction level
in the family. Is joint family structure being nuclearised? Many studies in India have proved
that joint family in India is not disappearing. This is evident from various empirical studies
conducted by various scholars in different parts of the country.

Structural Changes :
I. P. Desai studied urban families in Mahuwa in Gujarat and found that :

1. Nuclearity is increasing and jointness is decreasing;

2. Spirit of individualism is not growing, as about half of the households are joint with
other households; and
3. The radius of kinship relations within the circle of jointness is becoming smaller. The
joint relations are mostly confined to parents-children, siblings, and uncles, nephews,
i.e., lineal relationship are found between father, son and grandson, and the collateral
relationship is found between a man and his brothers and uncles.

K. M. Kapadia studied rural and urban families in Gujarat’s Navasari town and its 15
surrounding villages and concluded that:

1. In the rural community, the proportion of joint families is almost the same as that of the
nuclear families. Viewed in terms of castes, in villages, higher castes have
predominantly joint family while lower castes show a greater incidence of nuclear
family.
2. In the urban community, there are more joint families than nuclear families. In the
‘impact’ villages (i.e., villages within the radius of 7 to 8 km from a town), the family
 pattern closely resembles the rural pattern and has no correspondence with the urban
pattern.
3. Taking all areas (rural, urban and impact) together, it may be held that joint family
structure is not being nuclearised The difference in the rural and the urban family
pattern is the result of modification of the caste pattern by economic factors.

Allen Ross studied Hindu families in Bangalore in Karnataka and concluded that

1. The trend of family nuclear family units. The small joint family is now the most typical
form of family life;
2. A growing number of people now spend at least part of their lives in single family units;
3. Living in several types of family during life-time seems to widespread that we can talk of
a cycle of family types as being the normal sequence for city-dwellers;
4. Distant relatives are less important to the present generation than they were to their
parents and grandparents;
5. City-dweller son has become more spatially separated from all relatives

A.M.Shah studied families in one village in Gujarat Classifying families as simple (consisting
of whole or part of the parental family) and complex (consisting of two or more parental
families), he found that one-third families were complex and two-third were simple, indicating
the breakdown of joint family system in rural India.

M. S. Gore studied families in an urban area (Delhi), rural and fringe areas of Rohtak and Hissar
districts in Haryana; found that two types of families :

1. One, husband, wife and sons-dominated children, and

2. Two, husband, wife, unmarried and married sons.

Sachchidananda studied families in 30 villages in Shahabad district in Bihar and found that :

1. One-fourth families were nuclear and three-fourth were joint, indicating predominance
of traditional families.
2. There were more nuclear families in upper castes than in middle and lower castes.
3. Nuclearity tends to rise with the level of education.

Kolenda used data from 26 studies conducted between the 1950s and 1970s and found that

1. Majority of the families are nuclear.

2. There are regional differences in the proportions of joint families. There are higher
proportions of joint families in Gangetic plain than in Central India or Eastern India
(including West Bengal).
3. The joint family is more characteristic of upper and landowning castes than of lower and
landless castes.
4. Caste is more closely related to the size and the proportion of joint families.

Ram Ahuja studied families in 1976 in an urban area and in 1988 in rural areas during his two
research projects. Both studies pointed out that though the number of nuclear families is
growing yet it does not indicate the disappearance of joint family system.
Studies on structural changes indicate that :

1. The number of fissioned families is increasing but even living separately, they fulfil their
traditional obligations towards their parental families.
2. There is more jointness in traditional (rural) communities and more nuclearity, in
communities exposed to forces of indus-trialization, urbanization and westernization.
3. The size of the (traditional) joint family has become smaller.
4. So long the old cultural values persist among people; the functional type of joint family
will be sustained in our society.
5. Changes from ‘traditional’ to ‘transitional’ family include trends toward new-local
residence, functional jointness, equality of individuals, equal status for women,
increasing opportunity to individual members to achieve their aspirations and the
weakening of family norms.

The important values which sustained joint family structure are :

1. Filial devotion of sons.

2. Lack of economic viability of some brothers, i.e., their inability to support their children
economically.
3. Lack of a state-organized system of social security for the old-age men and women.
4. A material incentive for organizing the size of labour unit since it constituted the major
share of the capital required for production of goods and services and people had to
depend on family labour.

The factors which are now breaking the joint family are :

1. A differential earnings of brothers generating tensions in the family, as unit of

production and service today is predominantly an individual Up to a point, the values
the members inculcate may enable them to subside tension by mutual adjustment and
compromise but brothers separate when they focus on the conjugal units.
2. The death of the ‘root couple’ who holds economic power, and inability, incompetence
and self-interest of sons and their wives to take up the role of ‘parental couple’.
3. Incentive of depending on family labour is disappearing with the emergence of a cash
nexus.
4. System of social security, savings and extended earning opportunities of the people are
leading to nuclearisation of joint family structures.

Interactional Changes :
The changes in intra-family relations may be examined at three levels: husband-wife relations,
parental filial relations and relations between daughter-in-law and parents-in-law. The
relations between husband and wife in Indian family have been reviewed by Goode, Kapadia,
Gore and Murray Straus.

1. Change in power allocation in decision-making : In traditional family, wife had no voice

in family decision making. But in contemporary family in budgeting the family
expenditure, in disciplining the children, in purchasing goods and giving gifts, the wife
now credits herself as equal in power role.Though husband continues to play the
 instrumental role and wife the expressive role, yet both often talk things over and
consult each other in the process of arriving at a decision.This also does not mean that
husband-dominant family is changing into wife-dominant or equalitarian family. The
assumption of economic role and the education of wife have made wives potential
equals.
2. The source of power has shifted from ‘culture’ to ‘resource’, where ‘resource’ is
‘anything that one partner may make available to the other helping the latter to satisfy
his/her needs or attain his/her goals, as such, the balance of power will be on the side
of that partner who contributes greater resources to the marriage.
3. Murray Strau’s study on ‘husband to wife power score’ also supported the hypothesis
based on ‘resource theory’ rather than the ‘cultural values theory’. He found that the
middle-class husbands have a higher ‘effective power’ score than the working class
husbands. It indicated that compared to middle-class families, working class families
have less joint husband-wife activity of all types. It also means that in middle class
families, both husband and wife take more active part than do working class families in
attempting to direct the behaviour of the family group toward solution of the problem.
4. Straus’s study thus indicated that both nuclearity and low socio-economic status are
associated with reduction in the husband’s power. Emphasizing ‘resources’ factor does
not mean that ‘culture’ (what Max Weber has called ‘traditional authority’) has lost its
importance. In fact, both factors are important today in ‘conjugal bonds’. It may thus be
averred that though an average Indian family is husband-dominant yet the ideological
source of power of women is giving place to a pragmatic one.
5. Emancipation of wife: The change in conjugal bonds is also evident from the increasing
emancipation of wife. In urban areas, wife going with husband a for social visits, taking
food with husband or even before he does, going together to restaurants and movies,
etc.indicate increasing ‘ companion’ role of wife. Husband no longer regards his wife as
inferior to him or devoid of reasoning but consults her and trusts her with serious
matters. As regards closeness of man to his wife and mother, man, particularly the
educated one, is now equally close to both (Gore).
6. The relations between parents and children may be assessed in terms of holding
authority freedom of discussing problems, opposition of parents by children, and modes
of imposing penalty. In traditional family, while power and authority was totally vested
in the patriarch and he was virtually all powerful who decided everything about
education, occupation, marriage and the career of children in the patriarch and he was
virtually all powerful who decided everything about education, occupation, marriage
and the career of children in the family (Kathleen Gough, McKim Marriot), in
contemporary family- not only in nuclear but also in joint family- the grandfather has
lost his authority.
7. The authority has shifted from patriarch to parents who consult their children on all
important issues before taking any decisions about them (Ross) also maintains that
grand-parents are no longer as influential as they were earlier (Gore) also found that it
is now parents who take decisions about schooling, occupation and marriage of their
children.They even oppose their parents.
8. Kapadia and Margaret Cormack also found that children today enjoy more freedom.
Some legislative measures have also given powers to children to demand their rights.
Perhaps, it is because of all this that parents do not use old methods of punishing their
children.
9. They use economic and psychological methods (denying money, scolding, restricting
freedom, reasoning) more than the physical methods (beating). In spite of these
 changes in relations between parents and children, the children do not think only of
their rights and privileges but also of the ‘welfare of parents’.
10. Relations between daughter-in-law and parents-in-law have also undergone change.
However, this change is not so significant in daughter-in-law relations. The educated
daughter-in-law does not observe purdah from her father-in-law and discusses not only
the family problems but also the social and even the political issues.
11. Taking all three types of relations- husband-wife, parents-children and daughter-in-law
and father in law-together, it may be concluded that
12. Younger generation now claims more individuality.
13. Consanguineous relationship does not have primacy over conjugal relationships.
14. Along with ‘cultural’ and ‘ideological’ factor, the ‘resource’ factor also affects relations.

How Long Family is going to Survive?

This question is concerned with the future of family as an institution, in general and the future
of joint family, in particular. As the survival of family as an institution is concerned, it may be
discussed in terms of four factors affecting the family :

1. Technological Advancement: access to such conveniences as electricity, piped water in

homes, intricate home appliances like gas and refrigerator, telephone, buses and other
vehicles have all changed common man’s living and raised his standard of life. Effects of
the industrial-technological changes on family are quite evident, like those of productive
function, abandonment of self-sufficiency in family economy, occupational and
population mobility, weakening of kinship ties, and so forth;
2. Population Explosion: shift from agriculture to manufacturing and service, migration
from rural to urban areas, decrease in birth and death rates, increase in average
expectation of life and availability of elderly persons in family, replacement of early
marriages by post-puberty add late marriages, etc., have created problems and
readjustment, changes in power structure, desire for smaller families and so on;
3. Democratic Society: ideals of democracy have filtered down to the level of family living.
Demand of rights by women, emancipation of children from patriarch’s authority,
willingness to approach decision making through democratic process, and change from
familisim to individualism may be described as important trends in family;
4. Secular Outlook: there is a shift away from religious values to rational values.Changes in
wife’s attitude towards husband, demand for divorce on maladjustment, children’s
reluctance to support parents in old age, elimination of family worship, are all the result
of rational thinking and deviation from moral and religious norms.

As regards the survival of joint family, many studies have proved that joint family will never be
completely nuclearised in our society. The two structures, joint and nuclear will continue to
survive. Only the nature of jointness will change from residential to functional one and the size
of joint family will shrink to two or three generations.

Dominant trends in Indian family in the last few decades :

1. Increasing importance of nuclear family.

2. Transference of some functions (e.g., educational recreational protective, etc.) to some
other institutions.
 3. Fundamental change in family age structure, i.e., proportionately fewer children to care
for and proportionately more elderly persons surviving. This has created the necessity
of transferring support function from the family to the state and to private insurance
companies. This has affected the family power structure too.
4. Freedom to women due to their education and increasing economic independence.
5. Declining reliance of children upon family controls.
6. Changing values of youth. Though they have respect for and fear of parents yet they
want parental support for achieving their individuals’ interests.
7. Liberalization of attitudes and practices towards sex.
8. Change from pre-puberty to post-puberty marriages.
9. Decreasing family size.

These characteristics of the present-day Indian family point out change in structure and family
ties.
These only trends are ongoing processes. They have not come to a stop. Nevertheless, it is
possible to
get a fair idea of what the family will be like in the future.

Following Harold Christensen, we can expect following possible changes in Indian family in
the
first quarter of the twenty-first century.

1. The family will continue to exist It will not be replaced by state-controlled systems of
reproduction and childbearing.
2. Its stability will depend more on interpersonal bonds than on social pressures from
outside or upon kinship loyalty.
3. It will more depend upon community support and services.
4. With medical advances, the family will have greater control over its biological process
(of separating sexual from reproductive function, controlling sickness and death, and
determining sex of the offspring).
5. Remarriage and divorce rates will be high.
6. Parents and grand parents will continue to support their children and grandchildren
even after their retirement.
7. Woman’s position of power within the family will further improve with increase in
gainful employment.
8. Viewed generally, the family will not be equalitarian but will remain husband-dominant
family.

Household Dimensions of the Family in India

Desai, based on the data collected from Mahuwa, examined the household dimension of
family. Jointness is a process, a part of household cycle. A family becomes joint from its nuclear
position when one or more sons get married and live with the parents or it becomes joint also
when parents continue to stay with their married sons. When married sons establish their
independent households, and live with their unmarried children they become nuclear families.
This is only a structural dimension of family.
Desai outlines structure of family as follows:

1. Husband and wife.

2. Unimember households
3. Husband wife and married sons without children and other unmarried children.
4. The above group with other relatives who do not add to generation depth.
5. Three generation groups of lineal descendents.
6. Four or more than four generations of lineal descendents.

In this classification emphasis is on the understanding of structure or composition of

households based on generation and lineage combination. House is the unit of the above
classification. There may be several reasons for change in the structure of family. According to
Desai there are two types of reasons: natural and circumstantial Jointness itself could be a
cause for a change in family. For example, married brothers or parents and married children
staying together separate due to unmarried brother’s or son’s marriage. Brothers separate
after parent’s death. Separation also takes place because of unwieldy size of the parental
family or due to shortage of space in the household. The circumstantial reasons for separation
are due to contingent situations in man’s life. These are:

1. Men staying with relatives such as the maternal uncle later on establish one’s own
household;
2. Other relatives staying with the head die or go away; and
3. Head of the family goes away alone for business purposes.

Besides the structural aspect of family Desai examines carefully the types of jointness based on
degree, intensity and orientation in regard to functions and obligations which people perform
for each other through living separately and at times at different far off places. Desai finds the
following five types of households:

1. Households with zero degree of jointness

2. Households of low degree jointness (joint by way of the fulfilment of mutual
obligations)
3. Household with high degree of jointless (jointless by way of common ownership of
property)
4. Households with higher degree of jointless (marginally joint families)
5. Households of highest degree of jointless (traditional joint families).

Desai concludes that today family is structurally nuclear and functionally joint based on the
fact that 61 per cent are nuclear and 39 per cent are joint in Mahuwa with varying degrees as
indicated above. Of the 423 respondents in Desai’s study only 5 per cent are not joint at all.
There are 27 per cent families with low degree of jointness, 17 per cent with high degree, and
30 per cent with higher and 21 per cent with highest degree. Desai also reports that 220
respondents believe in jointness unconditionally, 24 have faith in muscularity unconditionally,
51 believe in jointness conditionally and 58 express their faith in nuclear family with certain
conditions. It is undoubtedly clear that people have belief in joint family system, though it is
another thing that they are constrained to live apart from their parents and brothers and other
kin due to structural conditions on which they do not have any control.

Family is an unit with diverse and dynamic relationships within the household based on age,
sex, kinship status, education, occupational status, place of work, office or power, status of
in-laws etc. One cannot understand such a complex situation by looking at household
dimensions of family from a legalistic point of view. An extended household is a miniature
world, and as such it reflects the ethos of wider social system of which it is a constituent unit
Besides the diverse and dynamic relationships within the household composition, basic norms
of deference and etiquette, authority of the head of the family and rights and duties of other
members, performance of common and particular tasks etc., are some other dimensions to be
noted in the functioning of family in India. There are also regional variations in household
dimensions. Higher education does not weaken multy- member household and since higher
education is found more among the upper and upper-middle castes, joint family is more
among them than the lower caste and class people. In functional terms, jointness of household
is nothing but a structure of obligations among the closest kinsmen.

Religion and Society

Religious Communities in India

1. India is a pluralistic country. India is a land of unity in diversity therefore, people of

every religion and language live in every part of the country hence, the Hindus, the
majority community in India is a minority community in some states.
2. Government of India has notified 5 communities, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists,Christians
and Zoroastrians as religious minorities at the national level. As per the Census,
population of the minority groups constitutes 17.17% of the total population of the
country. On account of this the concept of minority has to be studied with great care.
Here, we will discuss various aspects of this problem in brief.
3. The International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences defines minority as a group of people
differentiated from others in the same society of race, nationality, religion or language,
who think of themselves as differentiated group with negative connotation. The
Constitution of India uses the term minority but nowhere defines it. The Supreme Court
and various High Courts have depended on the statistical criterion. Any community that
does not constitute 50 per cent in a state is called a minority.
4. Almost all countries recognize religious and linguistic minorities. In any country religions
groups may now be divided into linguistic groups and rice-versa.This phenonmous in
known as cross cutting cleavage. Accordingly, a person may be a member of a religious
minority yet of a linguistic majority or vice-versa. How such a person would behave
depends on his or her interest from issue to issue. Minority groups are united by certain
common features. They often organize themselves into a coherent group to demand
such privileges from the state that will help to promote their religion, culture and
language, so that they may stay alive and maintain their identity, not get absorbed by
the majority.
5. “A minority is a category of people singled out for unequal and inferior treatment
simply because they are identified as belonging to that category.”
6. Minority group refers to “any recognizable racial religious, or ethnic group in a
community that suffers from some disadvantage due to prejudice or discrimination.
7. Jagnath pothy has also listed out the defining features/properties of minority group. In
his opinion, the minorities are:
 Subordinate in someway to the majority.
 Distinguishing from the majority on the basis of physical or cultural features.
  Collectively being regarded and treated as different and inferior on the basis of these
features, and
 Excluded from the full participation in the life of the society.
 He further says, discrimination, prejudice and exclusion by the dominant group and self
segregation by the subordinate or minority constitute the basis for minority
identification.
 The wish to preserve distinctive features of one’s social and cultural life is an essential
featrures of a minority community. As a consequence there are always groups which are
different from other group in terms of language, religion etc. the dominant group tries
to assimilate the minority groups. This attitude of the majority group generates a
greater consciousness among the members of minority community. For preserving their
separate identity.
8. Speaking about the concept of ‘minority’ in the Indian context, it can be said that the
term has not been properly defined anywhere in the Indian Constitution. But ‘minority
status’ has been conferred on many groups.
9. According to the Article 29 of the Constitution any group living within the jurisdiction of
India is entitled to preserve and promote its own language, script or literature and
culture.
10. Article 30 states that a minority group “whether based on religion or language shall
have the right to establish and administer educational institution of their choice.
11. The preamble of the Indian Constitution guarantees for all of its citizens justice,
liberty, equality and fraternity. There is no discrimination against the minorities on
any ground whatsoever.

Minority is a term difficult to define with any degree of precision. It may refer to a relatively
small group of people dominated by a majority. Population size is not the only feature of
minority status. If a group is discriminated on the basis of religion, race or culture it can be
considered a minority.

Religious communities

1. India is a multi-lingual and a multi-religious country. Indian society is pluralistic in

character from the religious and other point of view. Since a very long time people
belonging to various religious communities have been living together in this nation.
According to the 1931 census there were ten religious groups in India.These were
Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, Zorastrians, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Jews and other tribal
and non-tribal religious groups.The census of 1961listed only seven religious categories;
Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and other religions and persuasions.
2. Though majority of the people living in this land are Hindus [79.80%], people belonging
to other religious communities such as Muslims [14.23%], Christians [2.32%], and Sikhs
[1.72%], Buddhists [0.70%], Jains [0.37%] and others [0.24%] are also living along with
the Hindus by enjoying on par similar rights and opportunities. By virtue of their
numerical strength the Hindus constitute the majority while the rest of the religious
communities come under what is known as ‘religious minorities/
3. Hindus are much below 50 per cent in the west coastal area where Muslim and Christian
population is largely concentrated Hindus are also less numerous in Punjab where they
are a minority accounting for 2-10% population at the district level In the tribal areas of
the North East with a Christian dominant population, the proportion of the Hindu
population ranges between 5-20%.
 4. Religion is really a complex phenomenon in India. For example, elements of Sanskritic
and tribal religion are found in a mixed form at various levels. So is the interaction
between the ‘great’, the ‘little’ tradition. Integration of Sanskritic Hindu religion and
tribal religion is also found The Santhals, for example, observe several high caste
festivals. This is also the case with the lower and ‘untouchable’ castes. Some tribals
worship Shiva. M.N.Srinivas writes: “Different tribes are Sanskritized in different
degrees, and different sections of the same tribe may not be uniformly Sanskritized”
5. Conversion to Christianity and Islam has been a controversial issue over the past
couple of decades. It is said that the members of depressed classes and tribals have
converted to Christianity, Islam and Sikhism in various parts of the country; particularly
in the 1920s and also after Independence.
6. A good number of tribals have accepted Hindu rituals and religious practices in Bihar,
Bengal, Assam and other areas. Thousand of Harijans have converted to Buddhism in
Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. Induced or forced conversion is certainly against the
Constitution of India and the law of the land There may be several factors responsible
for change of religion; but it is certain that a number of people have changed religion to
get free from religious orthodoxy.
7. It has been reported that minority religions show a greater percentage of literacy than
the majority religions. Parsis, Jains, Jews and Christians have shown this patter. With
the exception of Christians, these communities are also more engaged in trade and
business than Hindus and Muslims. A study reveals that the Parsis, Jews and Jains are
“advanced” in business, though not diversified Hindus and Muslims have a diversified
occupational pattern because of their large numbers and spread all over the country.
The minority groups are found in specific regions, sub-regions and cities, and therefore
find themselves in an advantageous position. Syrian Christians, Moplas, Parsis and some
other groups have been benefited because of their strategic location in Kerala and
Maharashtra.

SECULARISM IN INDIA

1. As the area of scientific knowledge and technology widens, the area of religion shrinks.
Some of its functions are taken over by other agencies. This process of shrinkage of
religious beliefs and functions and emergence of wider use of science and technology is
called secularization.
2. The process of secularism starts when institutions of society, in different functional
areas, resist subservience to established religion and gain a measure of autonomy. In
the process, the institutions and functionaries of religion lose their control over several
fields of social activity such as politics and diplomacy, economics and trade, education
and medicine and so on. This marks the ascendancy of civil authority. A total religious
worldview, in which the entire framework of action has a religious oriental undergoes a
thorough modification.
3. A secular and modern society is not against religion as such, but it has to fight
superstition and intolerance as well as bigotry and obscurantism. Separate religious
identities are permissible so long as they do not question the legitimacy of larger
national boundaries.
4. If religion does not bar the emergence of national consensus on goals of social action,
does not inhibit national integration, and does not obstruct the adaptation of the larger
society to the fact-changing world, the secular society will leave it undisturbed under
 these conditions diversity is to be welcomed Area of personal belief that are not
inconsistent with the larger needs of society, will be upheld and protected by society.
5. But beliefs and practices that bring about discord and disharmony between different
religious groups will require resolute action. Inter-religious harmony and consensus for
progress would be an acceptable and attractive slogan to a secular society oriented to
modernity The meaning of Secularism has been interpreted differently in different
countries according to their prevailing traditions and culture. Like in India, secularism
for Gandhi did not mean a religiosity but the spirit of religious tolerance which he
postulated on the basis of universalistic ethic of Hinduism itself.
6. In free India, secularism has survived despite its many difficulties. The Congress (INC)
which came into power as a political party under the leadership of Nehru consistently
advocated the need for India becoming a secular state.
7. Its constitution guarantees individual and collective freedom of religion and lays down
that there should be no state discrimination on the ground of religion in public
employment and education; it further provides that state as such must be neutral to
religious goals and should not levy taxes for religious purposes or encourage religious
teachings in educational institutions wholly financed by the state. Thus, constitution of
India offers us a normative structure of secularism and democracy.
8. The Hindu community right from the beginning of the British rule took a more liberal
attitude and more tolerance towards various social legislations which abolished many of
its pseudo-religious customs by law. After independence, many legislations regarding
reforms in customs of marriage, untouchability, inheritance etc, have been accepted
without much opposition.
9. This may partly be explained by the universalistic nature of Hindu religion itself, but it is
mainly due to the emergence of an enlightened elite in the Hindu society with rational
commitment to nationalism. The case of other major Indian community, the Muslims,
has been fundamentally different This creates, disbalance the processes of secularism in
India.

Factors Affecting Secularism in India :

1. State’s Intervention : Other inconsistency, in the process of secularism in India, has

been the regular interventions of state in the religious matters, this particularly holds in
case of management of temples and religious institutions, such as monasteries and
monastic heads. Enactment in this sphere existed from the British times; for instance, in
Bengal in 1810 and in Madras in 1817 regulations were passed for regular
administration of temple endowments by the government In 1960 GOI appointed a
Hindu Religious Endowments Commission to examine the administration of Hindu
religious endowments and suggest to improve their management. Following the report
in 1962, legistations have been enacted in many states like Assam, UP, Punjab for the
management of temple endowment and steps have also been taken to rationalize the
methods of learning and training of Hindu Priests through theological colleges and
encouragement of Sanskrit teachings.
2. Role of Political Organisations : In the political spheres too, many political parties and
groups have continued to voice communal point of view on contemporary issues (like,
Hindu Sabha, Ram Rajya Parishad VHP, Shiv Sena, Muslim League etc). Some of them
have even increased their political influence in many parts of the country by conducting
violent movements against the killing of cows and by throwing them controversial issues
like Mandir and Masjid and by intervoting the meaning of Hindutva etc. Since
 Secularism complies to universalities world-view, these contemporary movements in
India do not harmonise with its value system.
3. Common Civil Code : Art 44 of the constitution of India talks about common civil code,
but so far it is not enforceable in the court of law. In civil matters, there are different
laws for Hindus and Muslims because of different codes, in reference to marriage,
divorce, inheritance, maintenance etc. Muslim Personal Board wants non-interference
in this matter. Moreover the legislature and Supreme Court both have opposite views
on it, which is visible in the famous Shah Bano case. The absent of common civil code
weakens the tolerance level which eventually opposes secularism.
4. The Issue of Identity (Ethnicity) : After independence, Sikh community apprehended
erosion of their cultural identity owing to lack of proper representation in all spheres.
Therefore they demanded a separate state. This process ended in Hindu-Sikh riot which
grievously impacted secularism in India. Almost the same process is going on in Jammu
and Kashmir to diminish the level of secularism.

How to Maintain Secularism

1. Role of State Governments :

 Stern actions were taken against some organizations in Ayodhya issue, especially
Bajrang Dal was banned
 In 1999, UP religious Places Bill was passed in which it was ensured to put the religious
places under the control of the concerned District Magistrate. However, owing to
President’s veto power it could not become an act
 In 2001, UP Government banned SIMI because it was believed the SIMI was spreading
terrorism along with fundamentalism.
 After the bomb blasts in Mumbai on 11th July Maharastra Government banned SIMI.
2. Role of the Courts : All citizens of India have got right of religion through Art 25 in which
propagation of religion is inherent, but it is limited on the following grounds-public
order, public morality and public health. The following decisions of the courts in this
regard are noteworthy here :
 Stainislas V/s M.P.: Court (S.C.) decided that propagation of religion does not include
forced conversion. Conversion under temptation comes under it, the court pleaded,
because it badly affects the public order and morality. Such activities would oppose
secularism.
 Mohd Hanif Quereshi V/s Bihar State : In this case it was pleaded that cow-slaughter has
not been considered a compulsory custom in Islam on Baqreed Thus it can be stopped
by law in the interest of public order.
 In Shah Bano case, the Supreme Court ordered maintenance in the interest of public
health.
 The courts have been tough against the wrong opponents of conversion. For example,
Dara Singh and his accomplices were awarded life-imprisonment in Stines-murder case.
3. Role of Civil Society : People comprising civil society make others awared about
secularism through articles, reports, social activities, debates, conventions etc, which is
highly beneficial and important For example, at many occasions there has been a
debate on Art 44 nationally. However, with the help of unbiased opinions of the people
a consensus could be created through voting.
4. Role of Coexistence : In his study in South India, M.N. Sriniwas found that a strong
tolerance between Hindus and Muslims has created a proper adjustment and so
coexistence. They cooperate each other not only in the matters of economy but also in
 cultural and religious matter. That is why they keep on exchanging religious elements
mutually which has narrowed down the social distance between them. Such kind of
activities would definitely eliminate the problem of communalism and fundamentalism
from India if it is equally applied to other places as well.

Conclusion :
Despite these problems secularism has been accepted widely as the national policy in India. As
Donald E. Smith says, “it is meaningful to speak of India as a secular state, despite the
existence of the problems…..India is a secular state in the same sense in which one can say that
India is a democracy. Despite various undemocratic features of Indian politics and government,
parliamentary democracy is functioning and with considerable vigour. Similarly, the secular
state; is clearly embodied in the constitution, and it is being implemented in a substantial
measure.”

Problems of Religious Minorities in India

1. In spite of the provisions of the constitutional equality, religious minorities in India often
experience some problems among which the following may be noted.
2. Prejudice and Discrimination: Prejudice and discrimination are found in any situation of
hostility between racial and ethnic groups and divergent religious communities.
3. Prejudice refers to a ‘prejudged’ attitude towards members of another group.These
groups are regarded with hostility simply because they belong to a particular group, and
they are assumed to have the undesirable qualities that are supposed to be
characteristic of the group as a whole.
4. Discrimination, on the other hand refers to an action against other people on the
grounds of their group membership. It involves the refusal to grant members of another
group the opportunities that would be granted to similarly qualified members of one’s
group.
5. Speaking in the Indian context, discrimination especially in providing opportunities to
people of different communities is, not at all in practice.The Preamble of the
Constitution itself declares that all people irrespective of their caste, class, colour, creed
sex, region or religion will be provided with equal rights and opportunities. Articles 15 (I)
and 15(2) prohibit discrimination on grounds of religion.
6. Article 25 promises the right to profess, propagate and practice religion. It is clear that
there is no legal bar for any religious community in India to make use of the
opportunities [educational economic, etc.] extended to the people. It is true that some
religious communities [for example, Muslims] have not able to avail themselves of the
opportunities on par with other communities. This situation does not reflect any
discrimination. It only reveals that such communities are lagging behind in the
competitive race.
7. As far as prejudices are concerned prejudices and stereotyped thinking are common
features of a complex society. India is not an exception to this. Commonly used
statements such as “Hindus are cowards and Muslims are rowdies and Christians are
converters”, etc., reflect the prevalent religious prejudices.
8. Common people who are gullible in nature never bother to find out the truth behind
these statements, but are simply carried away by them. Such prejudices further widen
the social distance among the religious communities.This problem still persists in India.
 9. In general Lack of distributive justice, differential accessibility to resources and cultural
differences have been considered the main causes of inter-religious (minority)
problems.

MUSLIM

1. Economic Disparity: Leads to owner disparity like educational attitudinal and cultural
disparities. During the period of industrial growth, the symbol of economic progress was
the growth of cotton mills. In India cotton mills increased from 74 to 206 between 1883
and 1904 of all these only one mill owner was a Muslim, the rest were Hindus, Parsis,
Englishmen.
2. Least Beneficiaries of Post Independence Industries: Their upper class depended upon
feudal mode of production and after independence became weaker and weaker as the
Indian Bourgeoisie emerged stronger. Both in UP and AP where the Muslim feudal
classes were strong, they faced economic ruination with abolition of Nizam’s estate on
the one hand and on the other, change in mode of production.
3. Personal Law : Indian Muslims have deep distrust of those who try to tamper with it Art
44 of Indian constitution (common civil Code) reads, “The State shall endeavour to
secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.” While
Muslim leadership considers the state’s non-interference in the community’s personal
law as the touchstone of Indian secularism. All India Muslim Political Convention passed
a resolution in Dec 1970. The Parliament had no right to interfere in the personal law-
based on Quran and Sunnat
4. Urdu Language : Increasing neglect Urdu is not even a second regional language.
Further, Muslims argue that a mere legal recognition without adequate educational
facilities for its speakers would create. a dilemma. It’s largely associated with one
particular religion of India, Islam.

Counter-argument:

1. Everyone knows that people speak the language of the particular area in which they
live. It has nothing to do with religion. The Bengali Muslim speaks Bengali, the Madrasi
Muslim speaks Tamil Sindhi Muslim speaks Sindhi.
2. No special effort have been made to fulfil the needs of education and ranking of the
major portion of Muslim population which belongs to the lower strata of society.
3. Muslims complain that in the text-books an over weightage is given to the Hindu
mythological cultural and historical features.

SIKHS
Political Problem : Almost monopoly, the ideal of secularism was in saddle. The question was
“How could the Sikhs retain their distinct and separate identity in a state nominally pledged to
secularism but in actual practice increasingly Hindu?”
Sikhs formed three important concessions for their constituency :
(a) Service formula, (b) the Parity formula, (c) The Sachar formula

 Established numerical proportions of Hindus and Sikhs in the bureaucracy of the Punjab
Govt
 Number of Sikhs and Hindus in the ministry would be equaL
  Provides details for the teaching of Punjabi and Hindi in different areas of the Punjab.

After Akali Dal had won three post independence elections within the then felt he had
sufficient support to demand Punjabi Sabha or a Separate State or Linguistic basis.

CHRISTIAN

1. A number of UP villages the economic status of Christians declined after their

cooperative failed (United Church of North Indian Survey, 1968).
2. A Lucknow study showed, after independence, Christians of that city had the lowest per
capita income of the ten communities.
3. Christian leaders report that the proportion of govt workers from the Christian
community in civil service jobs is actually less than 2% of their population.

PARSIS
The real problem confronting the community is not political but demographic- one of the
steadily declining numbers. In 1981census it was recorded that there was a decline of 20,000 in
10 years..

Possible reasons :
Inbreeding, reduction of fertility rate, late marriages, and out of community marriages.
Moreover, The Marwaris in Assam, Bengal and Bihar are a minority, but they control trade and
business in these states. They are treated as ‘outsiders’ and ‘exploiters’, ‘Sons of the Soil’
movement have been reported in Assam, Bengal Orissa and Karnataka, and subsequently
Marwaris were looted, killed in Bolengir (Orissa). One of
serious implications of these movements is that people can not move freely from one state or
region to other state or regions.

Other Common Problems of Minorities

1. Problem of Preserving distinct Social and Cultural Life:

2. Problem of Providing Protection :
3. Problem of Communal Tensions and Riots:
4. Problems related to language:
5. Problems related to religion:
6. Problems related to family and marriage.
7. Problems related to general life.
8. Problems of anomy.

A Fact File of Minorities

1. Majority of Muslims live in the cities and almost all Jains live in cities, whereas the Sikhs,
Buddhists and Christians live in village and towns.
2. The rate of procreation is the highest among the Muslims followed by Buddhists,
Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Christians in the same order. Christians have the lowest rate of
reproduction.
 3. A demographic study of the minorities shows that the ratio of women is less than men
in almost all the religious communities, except Christians where the women are more
than men. This ratio is the lowest among the Sikhs.
4. All the main minorities try to retain their identity. Each one of them has a particular way
of worship, and different customs and traditions.This diversity is visible in their day-to-
day practical lives.
5. The religious diversity and plurality of Indian society has been creating situation of
conflict from time to time. It is one of the main problems in the present times as well
and communal riots fundamentalism and separatist tendencies are shaking the
foundations of the Indian society.
6. After Independence India has been acknowledged as a secular state. The Constitution
clearly states that all religions are equal and the followers of each religion have equal
rights. No citizen of India shall be discriminated against on the basis of religions, caste,
race or gender.
7. On the practical level the government has not been able to keep aloof from various
religious matters and conflicts.Some leaders of religious communities have openly
declared that their religion is comprehensive and includes the social religious and
political aspects in its fold.Thus, they cannot keep politics out of it.
8. According to K.L. Sharma the literacy rate among the Parsis, Jains, Jews and Christians is
higher than others. With the exception of the Christians all of them are involved in trade
and business.

In spite of all these diversities there is an underlying unity in the Indian society. In fact, religion
has been our greatest treasure.The differences are linguistic and superficial. A deeper study of
religions reveals the underlying oneness in them.As a matter of fact, the declaration of
secularism is an acceptance of that intrinsic universality of all religions, especially of the Indian
origin.The need of the hour is to realize the religiousness of all religions more than the outer
layer of rituals and traditions, as spirituality, which is the predominant feature of Indian
society, is above religions and communities.

There are so many examples in the Indian history related to minority communities who have
made their significant contributions in the field of social cultural and political development.
During the freedom movement minority groups were very active in their participation. Some of
the examples of their participation are as follows:

1. Politically they have occupied the posts ranging from the President of the world’s
largest democracy to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India.
2. Punjab, land of Sikhs, is the foremost producer of wheat as well as rice and they have
made Green Revolution a great success.
3. In the field of cultural activities minorities have made their significant contributions.
Urdu language is an excellent example of cultural tradition of Hinduism and Islam.
4. Many Muslims, Christians and the members of other minorities have also made their
remarkable contribution to literature in other Indian languages. They have also
contributed to classical music, dance and films etc.
5. By the efforts of minority communities, science, journalism and sports have become
richer in India.
6. In the industrialization of the country, Parsis have played their splendid roles.
7. In this way, minority communities have made their best in promoting national integrity
and co operations.
Minorities and Marginalisation

1. The Constitution provides safeguards to religious and linguistic minorities as part of our
Fundamental Rights. The term minority is most commonly used to refer to communities
that are numerically small in relation to the rest of the population. However, it is a
concept that goes well beyond numbers. It encompasses issues of power, access to
resources and has social and cultural dimensions.
2. The Indian Constitution recognised that the culture of the majority influences the way in
which society and government might express themselves. In such cases, size can be a
disadvantage and lead to the marginalisation of the relatively smaller communities.
Thus, safeguards are needed to protect minority communities against the possibility of
being culturally dominated by the majority. They also protect them against any
discrimination and disadvantage that they may face.
3. Given certain conditions, communities that are small in number relative to the rest of
society may feel insecure about their lives, assets and well-being.This sense of insecurity
may get accentuated if the relations between the minority and majority communities
are fraught. The Constitution provides these safeguards because it is committed to
protecting India’s cultural diversity and promoting equality as well as justice. The
judiciary plays a crucial role in upholding the law and enforcing Fundamental Rights.
Every citizen of India can approach the courts if they believe that their Fundamental
Rights have been violated. Now let us understand marginalisation in the context of the
Muslim community.

Muslims and Marginalization

1. Muslims are 13.4 per cent of India’s population and are considered to be a marginalised
community in India today because in comparison to other communities, they have over
the years been deprived of the benefits of socio-economic development. The data in the
three tables below, derived from different sources, indicate the situation of the Muslim
community with regard to basic amenities, literacy and public employment
2. Recognizing that Muslims in India were lagging behind in terms of various development
indicators, the government set up a high-level committee in 2005. Chaired by Justice
Rajindar Sachar, the committee examined the social, economic and educational status
of the Muslim community in India. The report discusses in detail the marginalisation of
this community. It suggests that on a range of social economic and educational
indicators the situation of the Muslim community is comparable to that of other
marginalised communities like Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. For example,
according to the Report the average years of schooling for Muslim children between the
ages of 7-16 is much lower than that of other socioreligious communities.
3. Economic and social marginalisation experienced by Muslims has other dimensions as
welL Like other minorities, Muslim customs and practices are sometimes quite distinct
from what is seen as the mainstream. Some- not all- Muslims may wear a burqa, sport a
long beard, wear a fez, and these become ways to identify all Muslims. Because of this,
they tend to be identified differently and some people think they are not like the ‘rest of
us’. Often this becomes an excuse to treat them unfairly, and discriminate against them.
This social marginalisation of Muslims in some instances has led to them migrating from
places where they have lived, often leading to the ghettoisation of the community.
Sometimes, this prejudice leads to hatred and violence.
 4. In the case of the Muslim community there is a link between economic and social
marginalisation. The experiences of all these groups point to the fact that
marginalisation is a complex phenomena requiring a variety of strategies, measures and
safeguards to redress this situation. All of us have a stake in protecting the rights
defined in the Constitution and the laws and policies framed to realise these rights.
Without these, we will never be able to protect the diversity that makes our country
unique nor realise the State’s commitment to promote equality for all.

Some Other Problems of minorities

1. The level of education among the minorities especially Muslims are very low.
2. The per capita income of the minorities is low and hence they are forced to live in
dismal living conditions and to lead avocations unsuited to them.
3. Economic opportunities are unavailable or when available the skills to tap them are
missing. Their share in government services is very low.
4. They area made the victims of communal violence.

APPROACHES TO THE MINORITY PROBLEM

1. He can see the importance assumed by problems of minorities. It is not just related to
numerical representation in a society. It is related to its operssion. Besides, it is to be
precised on the basis of language, culture religion etc. in relation to that of a dominant
group.
2. A whole lot of theories have been advanced about the nature, causes and implications
of the problems of minorities. Some consider that ethnic identity among minority
groups is natural and primordial. The scholar who stress the cultural differences say that
prinordialism and linguistic differences among minority groups tend to generate conflict
rather than co-operation among then.
3. Other scholars consider the utilitarian bent of minority groups and state that it is
representing a power struggle.They feel that cultural factors are incidental to this
process. These scholars feel that the minority identity should be seen in the context of
development where each group tries to forge an identity in its struggle for scare
resources various approaches have been adopted towards a solution of the minority
while some suggested assimilation. Other suggested protection and for some the way
out was to get rid of minority community itself, by persecution, deportation etc.

Assimilation:

1. Earlier problem was essentially one of the conflict or religions and ethnic groups. But
these days the problem is essentially related to national minorities.A nation state
prefers if possible a homogenous religion, language, ethnic identify etc.
2. In the words of clude,”The rise of the problem of minorities was a logical consequence
of the ascendency of nationalism. It is injected into politics this principle that the state
should be nationally homogeneous and a nation should be politically united.
3. This gave rise to unrestricted control over given territory, uniformity of laws, languages,
customs etc. irrespective of differences. Homogeneity is never a reality thus there are
constant efforts by the majority to assimilate the minority. The welfare and security of
state were primary consideration. As a result the minority considerations. As a result
 the minority considerations were sidelined. It was not long before the various majority
ethnic groups realized this kind of subjugation and faught for their rights.
4. The assimilation of heterogenous groups through coercion is not so bluntly adopted
states now prefer adopting others indirect methods. Discrimination is one such method

Discrimination and Annihilation :

1. Due to minority’s district characteristics, they are subjected to great deal of

discrimination. The discrimination may be in form of fewer government funds for
minority educational institutions etc.very often they are discriminated to their social
life.
2. They are subjected to ridicule and segregation which compels them to stay away from
the majority. That is why we find that minority groups stay together in ghettos away
from the majority Raganath Mishra commission and sachar committee appointed by
GOI dwell’s deeply on this problem in India.
3. This discrimination infact leads to assimilation among some ambitions members of
minority community.These people in order to advance themselves seek to rid
themselves of their disabilities deliberately surrendering their typical features.
4. In case assimilation is found to be impossible. Some states resort to very direct method
of anihilation where members of minority group are eliminated by expulsion or by
massager. We can find this example in Rohingya minority problem in Myanmar.

Tolerance and Equality :

1. The policy of tolerance and fair treatment is adopted by many states when dealing with
minority community.A great deal of leeway is given for preservation and pursuance of
the minority’s social and cultural life. Though the states may have in mind the
assimilation of various miniority groups as the final goal It will nevertheless a adopt a
tolerant attitude towards minority groups as long as the minority community do not
cause any destabilizing effect on the nation state.
2. We find this policy of tolerance and fair, treatment guiding the provisions in our Indian
constitution. The constitution establishes no state religion, guarantees equal
opportunity to all irrespective of caste, creed and religion. Thus, we find that
constitution envisages fair treatment for all However the question that has been asked
many times is how are the minority group faring under constitution? It is true that there
is equality on the paper, but is it really practiced?
3. It is contention of the many minority groups, also studies have revealed that these
groups suffer a great deal of discrimination in social life, in securing job, in getting funds
for educational institutions, in their social interaction and so on. In any case a great deal
seems to depend on the bargaining power a particular disadvantaged group has. Some
are at disadvantage in their efforts to bring to state’s notice that certain of their socio-
cultural rights needs protection.

PM’s new 15 Point Programme for Minority Welfare

The government has announced Prime Minister’s new 15-point programme, for the welfare of
minorities in India. The progrmmes is to be executed by the Ministry of Minority Affairs. Under
the programme, students belonging to minority communities in the country i.e. Muslim, Sikh,
Christian, Buddhist, and Parsis could be able to get benefits specified under the scheme.
Progammes

1. Equitable availability or ICDS Services

2. Improving access to school education
3. Greater resources for teaching Urdu
4. Modernizing Madarsa education
5. Scholarships for meritorious students from minority communities.
6. Improving educational infrastructure through the Maulana Azad Education Foundation.
7. Self-Employment and Wage Employment for the poor.
8. Upgradation of skill through technical training.
9. Enhanced credit support for economic activities.
10. Recruitment to State and Central Services.
11. Improvement in condition of slums inhabited by minority communities.
12. Prevention of communal incidents
13. Prosecution for communal offences.
14. Rehabilitation of victims of command riots.

Significance of the new programme

1. The new progrmmes will go a long way in improving the conditions of minorities.
2. By improving education and exposing minorities to modern education, the programme
will lead to skill development and skill improvement among the minorities which will
ultimately make them suitable for the modern jobs available in the country and abroad.
3. Their economic conditions will be improved
4. The programme clearly talks about the rehabilitation of the victims of communal
violence, which has been a serious problem in India.

Constitutional Safeguards to minorities

In India, the National Constitution of 1950 or any other Constitutional document does not
define the word ‘Minority’.The Constitution only refers to Minorities and speaks of those
“based on religion or language “. In the Constitution of India, the Preamble (as amended in
1976) declares the State to be “Secular”, and this is of special relevance for the Religious
Minorities. Equally relevant for them, especially, is the prefatory declaration of the
Constitution in its Preamble that all citizens of India are to be secured “liberty of thought,
expression, belief, faith and worship and “equality of status and of opportunity.”

The Constitution of India has provided two types of safe-guards -general and specific to
safeguard various interests of the minorities. In the first category are those provisions that are
equally enjoyed by both groups. The provisions ensure justice- social economic and political
equality to all. The second category consists of provisions meant specifically for the protection
of particular interests of minorities.

1. People’s right to “equality before the law” and “equal protection of the laws”;
2. Prohibition of discrimination against citizens on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or
place of birth;
3. Authority of State to make “any special provision for the advancement of any socially
and educationally backward classes of citizens” (besides the Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes);
 4. Citizens’ right to “equality of opportunity” in matters relating to employment or
appointment to any office under the State – and prohibition in this regard of
discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.
5. Authority of State to make “any provision for the reservation of appointments or posts
in favour of any backward class of citizens which, in the opinion of the State, is not
adequately represented in the services under the State;
6. People’s freedom of conscience and right to freely profess, practice and propagate
religion – subject to public order, morality and other Fundamental Rights;
7. Authority of State to make law for “regulating or restricting any economic financial
political or other secular activity which may be associated with religious practice”, and
for “providing for social welfare and reform”;
8. Authority of State to make laws for “throwing open” of Hindu, Sikh, Jain or Buddhist
“religious institutions of a public character” to “all classes and sections of the respective
communities”;
9. Sikh community’s right of “wearing and carrying of kirpans” ;
10. Right of “every religious denomination or any section thereof – subject to public order,
morality and health- to establish and maintain institutions for religious and charitable
purposes, to. “Manage its own affairs of religion”, and own and acquire movable
immovable property and administer it “in accordance with law”;
11. People’s “freedom as to payment of taxes for promotion of any particular religion”;
12. People’s “freedom as to attendance at religious instruction or religious worship in
educational institutions” wholly maintained recognized or aided by the State;
13. Right of “any section of the citizens” to conserve its “distinct language, script or culture”
14. Restriction on denial of admission to any citizen, to any educational institution
maintained or aided by the State, “on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language or
any of them”;
15. Right of all Religious and Linguistic Minorities to establish and administer educational
institutions of their choice; and
16. Freedom of Minority-managed educational institutions from discrimination in the
matter of receiving aid from the State.

Part IV of the Constitution of India, containing non-justifiable Directive Principles of State

Policy, includes the following provisions having significant implications for the Minorities:

1. Obligation of the State “to endeavor to eliminate inequalities in status, facilities and
opportunities”amongst individuals and groups of people residing in different areas or
engaged in different vocations;
2. Obligation of State to “endeavor to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code
throughout the territory of India”;
3. Obligation of State “to promote with special care” the educational and economic
interests of “the weaker sections of the people” (besides Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes; and
4. Obligation of State to “take steps” for “prohibiting the slaughter of cows and calves and
other milch and draught cattle”.

Part IV-A of the Constitution, relating to Fundamental Duties, applies in full to all citizens,
including those belonging to Minorities and of special relevance for the Minorities are the
following provisions in this Part.
 1. Citizens’ duty to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all
the people of India “transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional
diversities; and
2. Citizens’ duty to “value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture”. Some
other provisions of the Constitution having special relevance and implications for the
Minorities are :
3. Official obligation to pay out of the consolidated funds of the States of Kerala and
Tamilnadu 46.5 and 13.5 lakh rupees respectively to the local “Dewasom Funds” for the
maintainance of Hindu temples and shrines in the territories of the erstwhile State of
Travancore-Cochin;
4. Special provision relating to the language spoken by a section of the population of any
State;
5. Provision for facilities for instruction in mother-tongue at primary stage;
6. Provision for a Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities and his duties;
7. Special provision with respect to Naga religious or social practices, customary law and
procedure, and “administration of civil and criminal justice involving decisions according
to Naga customary law.”
8. Identical special provision for the Mizos; and
9. Provision relating to continuation in force of pre-Constitution laws “until altered or
repealed or amended by a competent legislature or other competent authority”

Part III of the Constitution gives certain fundamental rights. Some of these rights are
common to all the citizens of India including minorities. These rights are enshrined in –

1. Article 14: This ensures equality before law and equal protection of law
2. Article 15: This prohibits discrimination on any ground i.e. religion, race, caste, sex,
place of birth.
3. Article 21: No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except the
procedure established by law.
4. Article 25: This ensures freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice
and propagate religion.
5. Article 26: This ensures a right to manage religious institutions, religious affairs, subject
to public order, morality and health.
6. Article 29: Gives minorities a right to conserve their language, script or culture. It
provides for the protection of the interests of minorities by giving them a right to
establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. The State is directed
not to discriminate against minorities institutions in granting aid.
7. Article 350A: Directs the State to provide facilities for instruction in the mother tongue
at the primary stage of education.
8. Art164(1): According to this article in states of Bihar, MP and Orissa there shall be a
Minister in charge of tribal welfare who may in addition be in charge of the welfare of
the scheduled castes and backward classes.
9. Art 244(1): Regarding administration of scheduled areas and tribal areas – (1) The
provisions of the Fifth schedule shall apply to the administration and control of the
Scheduled areas and Scheduled tribes in any state other than the state of Assam,
Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. (2) The provisions of the sixth schedule shall apply to
the administration of the tribal areas in the state of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and
Mizoram.
 10. Art 244(A): Formation of an autonomous state comprising certain tribal areas in Assam
and creation of local legislature or Council of Ministers or both thereof. Parliament may
by law form within the state of Assam an autonomous state comprising (whether wholly
or part) all or any of the tribal areas.
11. Art 275: Provided that there shall be paid out of consolidated fund of India as grants-in-
aid of the revenues of a state such capital and recurring sums as may be necessary to
enable the state to meet the costs of such schemes of development as may be
undertaken by the state with the approval of the Govt of India for the purpose of
promoting the welfare of the scheduled tribes in that state or raising the level of
administration of the scheduled areas therein to that of the administration of the rest of
the areas in that state. Provided further that there shall be paid out of the consolidated
fund of India as grant-in-aid of the revenues of the state of Assam sum capital and
recurring.
12. Art 330: Reservation of seats for the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in the House
of People.
 Seats shall be reserved for scheduled castes.
 The scheduled tribes except the scheduled tribes except the scheduled tribes in the
autonomous districts of Assam.
 The scheduled tribes in the autonomous districts in Assam.
13. Art 332: Reservation of seats for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in the Legislative
Assemblies of the states.
 Seats shall be reserved for the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes (except the
ST’s of autonomous districts of Assam) in the Legislative Assembly of every state.
 Seats shall be reserved also for the autonomous districts in the Legislative Assembly of
the state of Assam.
14. Art 334: Reservation of seats and special representation in Legislative Assemblies and
House of People to cease after fifty years.
15. Art 335: Claims of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes to service and posts-The claims
of the members of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes shall be taken into
consideration consistently with the maintenance of efficiency of administration in the
making of appointments to service and posts in connection with the affairs of the Union
or of a state.
16. Art 338: National Commission for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes
17. Art 339: Control of the Union over the administration of Scheduled castes and
Scheduled tribes.
18. Art 340: Appointment of a commission by the president to investigate the conditions of
backward classes.

Art 341: Power of the President to specify the castes, races or tribes or posts of or groups
within castes, races or tribes as scheduled castes.

1. Art 342 : Power of the President to specify the tribes or tribal communities or parts of or
groups within tribes or tribal communities as scheduled tribe.
2. Art 350(A) : Facilities for instruction in mother tongue of a minority group.
3. Art 350(B) : Special officer for linguistic minorities.
Patriarchy, Entitlements and Sexual Division of Labour in India

Patriarchy
Literally, rule by father, this concept is used to refer to a system that values men more and
gives them power over women.

Sexual division of labour

1. A system in which all work inside the home is either done by the women of the family,
or organized by them through the domestic helpers. Gender division is a form of
hierarchical social division seen everywhere, but is rarely recognized in the sociological
studies. The gender division tends to be understood as natural and unchangeable.
However, it is not based on biology but on social expectations and stereotypes.
2. Boys and girls are brought up to believe that the main responsibility of women is
housework and bringing up children.
3. In most families, women do all work inside the home such as cooking, cleaning, washing
clothes, tailoring, looking after children, etc., and men do all the work outside the
home. It is not that men cannot do housework; they simply think that it is for women to
attend to these things.
4. When these jobs are paid for, men are ready to take up these works. Most tailors or
cooks in hotels are men. Similarly, it is not that women do not work outside their home.
In villages, women fetch water, collect fuel and work in the fields.
5. In urban areas, poor women work as domestic helper in middle class homes, while
middle class women work in offices. In fact the majority of women do some sort of paid
work in addition to domestic labour. But their work is not valued and does not get
recognition.

Manifestation of Patriarchy and Sexual Division of Labour

1. The persistent and increasing burden of poverty on women;

2. Inequalities and inadequacies in, and unequal access to, education and training;
3. Inequalities and inadequacies in, and unequal access to, health care and related
services;
4. Violence against women;
5. The effects of armed or other kinds of conflict on women, including those living under
foreign occupation;
6. Inequality in economic structures and policies, in all forms of productive activities and in
access to resources;
7. Inequality between men and women in the sharing of power and decision-making, at all
levels;
8. Insufficient mechanisms, at all levels, to promote the advancement of women;
9. Lack of respect for, and inadequate promotion and protection of, the human rights of
women;
10. Stereotyping of women and inequality in women’s access to, and participation in, all
communication systems, especially the media;
11. Persistent discrimination against, and violation of the rights of, the girl-child.
Other Aspect of SEXUAL DIVISION OF LABOUR

1. Although women constitute half of the humanity, their role in public life, especially
politics, is minimal in most societies.Earlier, only men were allowed to participate in
public affairs, vote and contest for public offices.
2. Gradually the gender issue was raised in politics. Women in different parts of the world
organized and agitated for equal rights.There were agitations in different countries for
the extension of voting rights to women. These agitations demanded enhancing the
political and legal status of women and improving their educational and career
opportunities.
3. More radical women’s movements aimed at equality in personal and family life as well.
These movements are called FEMINIST movements. Political expression of gender
division and political mobilization on this question helped to improve women’s role in
public life.
4. We now find women working as scientists, doctors, engineers, lawyers, managers and
college and university teachers which were earlier not considered suitable for women.
In some parts of the world, for example in Scandinavian countries such as Sweden,
Norway and Finland, the participation of women in public life is very high.

Entitlement

1. Entitlement means the socially sanctioned right to have or do something, something

that we have an official right to: the amount that we have the right to receive. When we
analyze entitlement at microscopic, refers to place where one is living (the household),
food one is taking within the household, over the property, over the child over the
sexual relationship, over work, over power and authority, over liberty and equality.At
macroscopic level entitlement is defined by law, etc.
2. Differential entitlement of every individual over social and political affairs is
characteristics of traditional society e.g. Dalits were denied temple entry in traditional
Indian society, Women were not entitled to take part in social and political affairs in
most part of traditional Indian society.
3. Entitlements are equitably distributed in modern societies. For example class mobility is
now possible to lower strata of society. They can achieve this through education,
acquision of wealth, political power etc.
4. Feminist sociologists criticize modern criteria of entitlements. They blame that
entitlement is differentially distributed in modern society. Patriarchy still defines
entitlements, not the modernity.

Entitlements on the basis of gender status

1. Entitlements over household: A woman’s right over household declines after the death
of her parents. Entitlements of ownership over her house are restricted because of
patriarchy and primordial values.
2. Entitlements over food: Bina Majumdar studied status of a woman on the basis of
entitlement over food. Her findings show the influence of patriarchal values still
prevalent in matters of food in the family. Malinowski in his study found that- food
meant for god is prepared by unmarried girls and food for domestic consumption is
prepared by married women.
 3. Women in traditional Indian society generally eat after the meal of make members. Also
their food is of inferior quality some times.
4. Entitlement over projection of oneself: Women make food using rental and physical
labour. So her productive labour is involved in preparation of food But she is not given
credit for such act. Entitlement our maiden surname changed after marriage. Prefix is a
must before the name of women after marriage. This signifies women as private
property of man. Cultural prescription, patriarchal prescriptions define how a woman
will present herself before or after her marriage. This shows that a woman does not
have entitlement over her own existence.
5. Entitlement over women’s own self: Tulsi Patel in study of Rajsthan concluded that a
woman becomes mother-in-law by the age of 35. This is because of child marriage. This
shows that women do not have entitlement over the children she is going to produce.
6. Entitlement over sexuality: Women’s sexuality is greatly controlled and men’s sexuality
is free, in a patriarchal society.Women’s sexuality is subjected to patriarchal construct
Men make culture and dominate private sphere of women. Men and women are bom
equal but it is the society and culture which makes the status unequal.
7. Entitlement over work: Gender based inequality in sphere of work is found in almost all
societies. But it is absolute in socialist society. Reproductive role of women restricted
her role in work field Women never get out of her confinement of domestic life.
Women’s labour is rendered unpaid in domestic sphere. Her work is absolutely
unrecognized and unappreciated A kind of exploitation of women takes place at home.
Gender role division persists. Women are silent workers. Exploitation in industries leads
to revolution by exploited workers. But the silent workers never manifest the opposition
to exploitation.
8. Entitlement over power in the family and society : Decisions taken in a family are also
influenced by patriarchal values. In less important decisions women are concerned
Important decisions are taken by elders in the family in consultation with other male
members. Women don’t have the power to control over her body.

In our country, women still lag much behind men despite some improvement since
Independence. Ours is still a male-dominated PATRIARCHAL society. Women face
disadvantage, discrimination and oppression in various ways.

1. The literacy rate among women is only 54 per cent compared with 76 per cent among
men. Similarly, a smaller proportion of girls students go for higher studies. When we
look at school results, girls perform as well as boys, if not better in some places. But
they dropout because parents prefer to spend their resources for their boys education
rather than spending equally on their sons and daughters.
2. No wonder the proportion of women among the highly paid and valued jobs is still very
small. On an average an Indian woman works one hour more than an average man
every day. Yet much of her work is not paid and therefore often not valued The Equal
Wages Act provides that equal wages should be paid to equal work.
3. In many parts of India parents prefer to have sons and find ways to have the girls child
aborted before she is born. Such sex-selective abortion led to a decline in child sex ratio
(number of girls children per thousand boys) in the country to merely 927. There are
reports of various kinds of harassment, exploitation and violence against women. Urban
areas have become particularly unsafe for women. They are not safe even within their
own home from beating, harassment and other forms of domestic violence.
 Visions of Social Change in India
The idea of Development Planning and Mixed Economy

1. Development planning and change are interrelated term. Sociologically

development refers to process of social change. Which is planned and desired by
society. Therefore development is value laden concept Social Change refers to
attrition that occur in the social structure and social relations. It is value free
concept Planning implies that ways and means are devised and decisions for
future actions are chalked out well in advance. All cases of social change con not
be described as development Only planned and desired as development. One
such intervention can be seen in planned economy.
2. A planned economy is an economic system in which decisions about the
production, allocation and consumption of goods and services is planned ahead
of time, in either a centralized or decentralized fashion. Since most known
planned economies rely on plans implemented by the way of command they have
become widely known as command economies.The government takes the
initiative and set the goals and targets to be followed by the market forces.The
private sector becomes partner in the formulation of a plan and responsible for
its implementation.
3. Planning is commitment to concentrated actions. It is adjustment of social
institutions to new social, economic and political conditions. Target settings for
different sectors of economy that determine the supply. It is a type of economy in
which some central authority makes a wide range of decisions pertaining to
production and wages. The government can harness land labor, and capital to
serve the economic objectives of the state (which, in turn, may be decided by the
people through a democratic process).
4. Consumer demand can be restrained in favor of greater capital investment for
economic development in a desired pattern. For example, many modern societies
fail to develop certain medicines and vaccines which are seen by medical
companies as being unprofitable, but by social activists as being necessary for
public health. The state can begin building a heavy industry at once in an
underdeveloped economy without waiting years for capital to accumulate
through the expansion of light industry, and without reliance on external
financing. Second a planned economy can maximize the continuous utilization of
all available resources.This means that planned economies do not suffer from a
business cycle.
5. Under a planned economy, neither unemployment nor idle production facilities
should exist beyond minimal levels, and the economy should develop in a stable
manner, unimpeded by inflation or recession. A planned economy can serve
social rather than individual ends: under such a system, rewards, whether wages
or perequisites, are to be distributed according to the social value of the service
performed. A planned economy eliminates the dependence of production on
 individual profit motives, which may not in themselves provide for all society’s
needs.

Idea of planning and social change

1. Planning has become on importance factor in social change. Changes usually

cause positive as well as negative impacts. Planned change or development may
be defined as transformation that aims to minimize that negative impacts on
society. Planning is a needed strategic intervention for social change. Each
Country based on its history socio-political institutions, development priorities,
resource endowments and institutional structure undertakes development
planning.
2. That methodologies of planning are usually concerned with the choice of
technique. Planning can take place at different depth levels. It may be earned out
in many different ways. However it is desirable to have multiple perspective in
development planning.
3. Development planning methods, which take into accounts different dimensions
and integrate than into one are in the infancy. Endogenous development is the
main focus of development planning efforts. Development planning is usually
done from the perspective of government agencies. Sociologists have constantly
reminded government agencies to extend the nation of planning from the idea of
planned economy to that of planned society.
4. Bottom more…development planning is at the cross-roads today. Social and
cultural dimensions of development are usually understood as additional
programmers and as investment outside the industrial and agricultural growth
frameworks. This is where sociological analysis assumes immerse values. By
“keeping every things in view”, by defining clearly and describing the inter
connections between social phenome…. of different kinds, A sociologist makes
planning more effective.

Planning aims at :

1. Change in social organization, and

2. Community welfare like improving educational facilities, increasing employment
opportunities, doing away with evil social practices, etc.
3. Prior determination of objectives and proclamation of values;
4. Concreteness, that is, laying down concrete details of its subject-matter, and
5. Co-ordination of diversified skills and diversified professional training.

For the success of a plan, it is necessary that,

1. Plan must stem from the people themselves,

2. People’s participation is extremely necessary;
3. Initiative for implementing the plan is to be taken not by the planners but by the
activists in different walks of life,
 4. Priorities have to be decided in advance, and
5. Arbitration in decision-making must be by a person who has technical knowledge
and is a trained professional because he has the capability of visualizing
alternative solutions.

Economic planning was advocated by M. Visveswaraya in the1940s in India.The Indian

National Congress appointed a National Planning Committee on the eve of the Second
World War (1938-39) to frame an all India plan. But it was the Bombay Plan (known as
Tata Birla Plan) which made people planning conscious in India. In 1944, the
Department of Planning and Development was also created However, at this stage,
government plans were not concerned with definite economic targets.They were mainly
concerned with issues like raising standard of living, increasing purchasing power of
people, stabilizing agricultural prices, developing industries, removing wealth disparities
and raising the level of backward classes.

After independence, Indian Planning commission was set up to access countries need of
material capital and human resources and to formulate economic plan for their more
blended and effective utilization. It incorporates virtues of both capitalism and socialism
aiming at fostering free and faster growth of human personality.

 Planning was taken up in India essentially to give economic content to political

freedom it was conceived of as an instrument of socio-economic change and
expected to provide a controlled and faster rate of growth. In essence it sought to
convert political democracy into socio-economic democracy and resolve the
contradictions of an unequal society.
 In this context Planning Commission was set up in India to act as an advisory
committee of the cabinet It was assigned seven duties :
1. To make an assessment of the material capital and human resources of the
country
2. To formulate a plan for the most effective and balanced utilization of the
country’s resources,
3. To determine national priorities of development and define the stages of growth
and suggest allocation of resources,
4. To indicate factors tending to retard eco develop and determine the condos
necessary for the successful execution of the plan,
5. To determine the nature of machinery required for implementation of each stage
of the plan,
6. To appraise periodically the progress,
7. To make recommendations for its own effective working and regarding necessary
changes.

Objectives of Planning :
When India became free, the economy was caught up in a Vicious circle of poverty’. It
was characterized as underdeveloped and stagnant, marked by one of the lowest per
capita consumption and income levels in the world, inequitable distribution of income
and wealth, pre-dominance of backward forms of agriculture, weak industrial base and
that too controlled by traders and money-lenders, high rate of population growth,
rampant unemployment, scarcity of capital lack of entrepreneurs, and overall poverty,
illiteracy and lack of scientific and technical personnel The main objective of the
planning have been stated in different plan documents underline the following :

1. To build the industrial infrastructure,

2. To expand and improve agricultural production,
3. To lay down the foundations of a self-reliant and self-generating national
economy,
4. To increase and distribute national wealth,
5. To promote social justice,
6. To remove unemployment and poverty,
7. To remove illiteracy and disease,
8. To promote trade and commerce,
9. To give incentives to entrepreneurs for export-oriented and import-substituting
production, and
10.To make the Indian economy modern, efficient and competitive.

Comparing with other developing countries it is found that rates of growth of countries
like China, Thailand, Malaysia, Egypt, Maxico and Brazil have been higher than India’s.
But a more realistic index of growth is to see the rise of per capita income.

Moreover, India’s plans aim at increasing the national income. Each plan deals with
comprehensive aspects of development, by establishing certain developmental
priorities between different sectors of economy like heavy industry, light industry,
agricultural irrigation, infrastructural services etc. To obtain required resources, plans
lay down certain imperatives for mobilization of resources. These include imposition of
taxes, regulation of private trade and industry through licensing policy, issue of foreign
exchange permits and control of capital issues etc.

Since its inception, Planning Commission has so far prepared Five Year Plans, each
focusing on different objectives, say, family planning, increasing employment
opportunities, increasing Annual National Income by 5 per cent to 7 per cent, growth
of basic industries (like, steel power, chemicals), maximum use of manpower
resources, decentralization of economic power, reducing inequalities in income
distribution, achieving social justice with equality, and so on. It could be said that the
central objective of planning in India has been to raise the standard of living of the
people and to open out to them opportunities for a richer and more varied life.

Economic Planning for Removal of Poverty :

1. Rapid economic growth : Rise in GNP, rise in GDP, improvement in quality of life,
will ultimately lead to reduction of poverty. Fourth plan onward ‘Garibi Hatao’
and ‘Growth with justice’. Focus on raising living standard of the people.
 2. Increase in employment : It was Assumed inherent in economic growth through
increase in investment irrespective of choice of technique. Economic Planning for
Social Change.
3. Reduction of inequality of incomes : Two aspect of equality as the result of
traditional semi-feudal social formation and large disparities between rural and
urban incomes.
4. Establishment of a socialist society : Inclusive of social and economic democracy
-availability of opportunities for large mares of people irrespective of whether
they are rich or poor – Economic Planning and Democratic Socialism.
5. Faith in democratic values for the enrichment of individual and common man’s
life for self expression. A socialist society aims at the removal of poverty and the
provision of a national minimum income. A socialist economic aims at the
reduction of inequalities of income and wealth, through redistribution of income.
A socialist economy aims at the provision of equal opportunities for all through
provision of gainful employment for every able bodied citizen-raising investment
level – expansion of rural industry along with urban.
6. Faith in mixed economy : A socialist economy endeavours to check concentration
of economic power and the growth of monopolistic tendencies through:
 Extension of the public sector into fields requiring establishment of large scale
units and heavy investment.
 Widening of opportunities for new entrants.
 Setting up SMEs and cooperatives as well
 Effective exercise of government power of control and regulation and use of
appropriate fiscal measures.
7. The basic criterion of economic decisions in a socialist economy is not private
profit but social gain. State controlled the commanding height of the economy
through the public sector.

Nehru Mahalanobis Strategy of Planning :

1. Emphasized on development of basic industries so as to achieve long term goal of

development.
2. A high rate of saving so as to boost investment.
3. Opted for protectionist path so as to safeguard infant industry.Encourage import
substitution to achieve self-reliance.
4. Aimed at enlargement of opportunities for less privileged section of the society.
5. Assumed agriculture, light industries, private sector export to play supplemental
role of so as not to limit the industrial progress.

Gandhian Model of Planning: Tried by Janta Government 1978-83.

1. Basic objective of the Gandhian model is to raise the material as well as the
cultural level of the Indian masses so as to provide basic standard of life.
2. Aims to reform in agriculture so as to attain food-self sufficiency, and maximum
regional self sufficiency in food.
 3. Laid special emphasis on dairy farming as an occupation and as an auxiliary
occupation to agriculture.
4. Attainment of self-sufficiency in village communities requiring rehabilitation,
development and expansion of cottage industries along side agriculture.
5. Recognizes the need for and development of certain selected and key industries
in India especially defence, hydro-electricity, thermal-power generation, mines,
metallurgy machinery and machine tools, heavy. Employment-oriented planning
to replace production-oriented planning.
6. To augnent Agriculture and employment potential of farm machinery.
7. Equitable distribution through decentralized small scale production.
8. In Gandhian Model distribution tackled at production end, not at consumption
end.

LPG Model or Narsimha-Manmohan Model of Planning :

1. Areas hitherto reserved for public sector were opened to private sector
2. Government removed certain shackles to facilitate private investment, say
removing license approval for establishing industrial units.
3. Abolishing the threshold limits of assets in respect of MRTP.
4. To facilitate FDI, government decided to grant approval for FDI above 51% in high
priority areas.
5. Chronically sick PSU referred to BIFR for the formulation of revival/rehabilitation
scheme along with social security mechanism for displaced workers.
6. Greater autonomy given to PSU managements and the boards of PSUs were made
professional.
7. Economy opened to other countries to encourage exports.

Criticism of LPG Model :

1. Very narrow focus as corporate sector account for only 10% of GDP.
2. Bypasses agriculture and agro-based industries which are major source of
employment.
3. Danger of labour displacement in light of larger role for MNCs.
4. Import window appeared too wide so as to invite larger trade gap.
5. Emphasis on capital intensive industries instead of labour intensive industries in
light of growth of labour force at 2.2% per annum.

MIXED ECONOMY AND PLANNING

Three features :

1. Positive economic role of state.

2. Co-existence role of state.
3. Combined features of capitalism and socialism.
Planning Process in Mixed Economy:

1. The mixed economy was necessarily a planned economy so as to reconcile

conflict of self-interest and social gain so that they subserve national interest.

Success of planning in mixed economy hinges on

1. To what extent public sector able to pursue the socially determined goal.
2. To what extent is the state able to guide the private sector to follow the socially
determined goals?
3. To what extent is the state able to check the distortions in investment? Decisions
arising out of private sector interest going against the public sector.

Government’s effort in this direction :

1. Deliberate promotion of defence, heavy and basic industry through larger

resource allocation by the state.
2. Allocation of substantial portion of investment in creation of economic
infrastructure in farm and irrigation work etc.
3. State control over financial institutions to direct investment in socially desirable
channels.
4. Setting up of MRTP Commission.
5. Use of rationing and price control of essential commodities so as to ensure
availability to weaker section of society.
6. Undertaking of special programmes to help the education and training of socially
disadvantaged people.

India’s mixed economy pattern is based on the co-existence of public sector units and
private sector, enterprises. Both the sectors work within the framework of the invisible
hand of the market and the visible hand of planning. The role and scope of public sector
has been spelt out in the two Industrial Policy Resolutions of 1948 adopted immediately
after independence, and the 2nd Resolutions of 1956, adopted after the Avadi session
of the congress, in which the ideal of the’ socialistic Pattern of Society’ was accepted
and it was stated that for planned and rapid development of all industries of basic and
strategic importance, and those in the nature of public utility services, should be in the
public sector.

1. Public sector has not been developed for any ideological reason.
2. Private enterprise had neither the resource nor the skill nor the inclination to
invest heavily in areas where returns would come much later, and lot of money
would be locked up without immediate gains. State alone had the resources and
the will to build the public sector.
3. Public sector units in a mixed economy has the exclusive responsibility for the
development of public enterprises, which are used for developing heavy
industries and infrastructural services. These include means of transport-railways,
shipping, airways and road transport services; communications post, telegraph
 and telecommunication; irrigation facilitation energy sources, like coal petroleum,
natural gas, electric power, atomic energy, etc and heavy industries iron and steel
minerals and metals, chemicals, fertilizer and pharmaceuticals, heavy
engineering, machine building etc.
4. The growth of public sector is one of the major contributions of the planning
process. The Mahalanobis ‘Plan Frame’ (2nd Plan Period) stated that the
development of heavy industries was essential to strengthen the foundations of
economic independence.
5. In the mixed economy framework, private ownership of the means of production
has been allowed Private Sector in India accounts for about80% of the total
national output Apart from the basic infrastructural industries and service utilities
all other industries are in private sector.
6. These include cotton textiles, jute, sugar, cement, vegetable oil leather,
cosmetics, automobiles, scooters cycles, electronic goods and appliances etc.
Agriculture the principal economic activity of 60% of people, is also in the private
sector. The ownership of agricultural land is entirely personal.

Implications :

1. Plan targets have been unrealistically high. The implementation machinery has
been weak and inadequate.
2. Bureaucracy and politicians have remained often uncommitted to the goals and
purposes of planning.
3. There has been over-optimism in plan calculations. Corruption and inefficiency of
administration. Resulted in neglect of projects and wastage of resources.
4. There has been inadequate use of irrigational facilities by the farmers.
5. The business community concerned with more of profit motives, could not
develop a public spirit to help in plan implementation.
6. Religious and caste prejudices, social and educational backwardness of the bulk of
the rural people, antagonism between the centre and states and general apathy
of the citizens in development at activities contributed to the existence of the gap
between proclamation and performance.

In this situation, planning in India reveals a contradictory pattern of growth and poverty,
not of growth removing poverty.

Distortions in Planning Process :

The profit motive and the acquisitive spirit of the private sector on the one side and the
inefficiency of the public sector on the other have resulted in serious distortion.The
main distortions are :

1. Distortion of production structure due to persistence of inequality

2. Growth of unemployment due to failure to control rapid growth of population
and emphasis on capital intensive production.
3. Failure of state to check concentration of economic power
 4. Emergence of black economy or parallel economy in India
5. Failure to check the increase in prices
6. Failure to bring about a redistribution of income.
7. Failure of planning process to significantly reduce the proportion of people below
poverty line.
8. If we make an appraisal of all the eight completed, we find that all our plans have
been oriented towards something, sometimes self-reliance in agricultural
production, sometimes employment, sometimes industrial growth, and so on. But
poverty and unemployment have invariably increased. During the period of 48
years, the average rate of economic growth has been 3.5 per cent. During 1951-
1998, our annual national income had increased by about 3.5 per cent,
agricultural production by 2.7 per cent, industrial production by 6.1 per cent, and
the per capita consumption by 1.1 per cent Though the government claimed that
the number of people below the poverty line came down to 33 per cent in 1998
yet we cannot concede that poverty has decreased. No wonder, more people feel
frustrated today and the number of agitations is increasing every year.

According to Ronald Lippit for success of a plan certain strategies have to be put into
practice.

1. Development proposals and procedures should be mutually consistent,

2. Goals of development must be stated in terms that have positive value to the
community,
3. Planners must have a thorough knowledge of the beliefs and values of the
community’s culture,
4. Development must take the whole community into account,
5. Community must be an active partner in the development process, and
6. Communication and coordination between various agencies of development is
essential.

Constitution, Law and Social Change

History is full of examples where laws have been used to bring about changes in society.
Laws have been created to achieve desired goals. It is not only articulates but also sets
the course for major social changes. In fact attempted social change through law is an
important feature of the modern world. This is visible in almost all developed and
developing societies.

The changes that have occurred with the transformation of Western capitalist societies
and the emergence of Soviet type societies have essentially been through laws. For
example, the Soviet Union and several east European counties have successfully made
large scale social changes through laws. Income redistribution, nationalization of
industries, land reforms and provision of free education are examples of the
effectiveness of law to initiate change.

1. A distinction is made between direct and indirect aspects of law in social change.
In many cases law interacts directly with social institutions and brings about
 obvious changes. For instance, a law prohibiting polygamy has a direct influence
on society. It alters the behaviour of individuals.
2. On the other hand, laws play an indirect role also by shaping various social
institutions which in turn have a direct impact of society. The most appropriate
example is the system of compulsory education which enables the functioning of
educational institutions, which in turn leads of social change.
3. However, such a distinction is not absolute but a relative one. Sometime,
emphasis is on the direct aspect and less on the indirect impact of social change,
while in other cases the opposite may be true.

There is another way of examining the role of law in social change.

1. Law redefines the normative order and creates the possibility of new forms of
social institutions. It provides formal facilities and extends rights to Individuals. In
India, for example, law against untouchability has not only prohibited the
inhuman practice but has also given formal rights to those who suffered from
such disabilities to protest against it. In this sense, law not only codifies certain
customs and morals, but also modifies the behaviour and values existing in a
particular society.
2. Thus, law entails two interrelated processes: the institutionalization and the
internalization of patterns of behaviour. Institutionalization of a pattern of
behaviour means the creation of norms with provisions for its enforcement.
Internalization of patterns of behaviour, on the other hand means the
incorporation and acceptance of values implicit in a law.When the
institutionalization process is successful it in turn facilitates the internalization of
attitudes and beliefs.

In ancient India, no universal legal system based on the principle of equality existed In
ancient India there was a close connection between law and religion. A rule of law was
not different from a rule of religion. It was maintained that all laws were contained in
the Dharmashastra. The legal system was primarily based on the social position of
castes and classes. No uniform standards were applied in providing justice to people.
There was no uniform legal norm at an all-India level. Local customs and regional
practices defined and determined these norms.Another important feature of the
ancient legal system was its orientation towards the group. Legal norm applied more to
the group as an unit rather than to the individual This characteristic of legal system
continued even during the medieval period.

During the British rule radical transformation took place in the legal and judicial
systems of the country. The British introduced numerous changes in the traditional legal
system.The new legal system was based on the principle of universalism. The notion of
equality before law was recognized and received legal sanction. Law courts were
established at different levels. The enactment of the Indian Penal Code and the Codes of
Civil and Criminal Procedure produced a strong system of judicial administration. This
legal system was, however, not confined to criminal justice alone. It even brought
domestic and personal life of the people under its purview. Several social legislations
came into operation which covered areas like collective bargaining, and employment
contract A continuous rationalization of law was introduced by codification of
customary law. It increased the separation of law from religion.

Moreover, some legislation in relation to prevailing conservative and orthodox social

practices were also passed during the colonial period which acted towards social
reform. Indian society in the nineteenth century was under the grip of inhuman customs
and practices. Untouchability was practiced throughout the country. The position of
women was most degrading. Child marriage, widowhood and the cruel practice of sati
put women to life long misery and humiliation. These inhuman practices were,
however, challenged by social reformers and the British Indian Government responded
by enacting several social legislations.

1. The practice of sati (widow burning) was declared illegal in 1829.

2. The Hindu Widow Remarriage Act of 1856 legalized the remarriage of the Hindu
widows.
3. When the members of the Brahmo Samaj in Bengal started facing problem in
marriage, a Native Marriage Act was passed in 1872.The Brahmos claimed that
they did not belong to any religious groups in India. This Act worked like a civil
marriage law under which people outside any religious fold could marry.
4. Another important legislation linked with marriage was the Age of Consent Act of
1891. The Act prohibited the performance of marriage for girls below the age of
twelve.
5. During the closing years of the nineteenth century, besides personal laws, several
other laws relating to land and industry were also enacted.
6. The Factory Act of 1881 addressed the issue of the welfare of factory workers.
7. The Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885 introduced reforms in land tenure system.
8. The Press Act of 1878 was a landmark in the field of mass communication.
9. These legislations not only advanced the cause of cultural change but also
contributed towards transformation of the agrarian structure.

The nature and extent of social change in India has been influenced largely by radical
social legislation introduced after the independence. They pertain to subjects ranging
from economy, policy, family and inheritance. Legislations impact upon every aspect of
people’s lives. The number of legislation enacted after the independence is, however, so
large that all of them cannot be discussed here. Therefore, we have selected only some
important legislations to highlight their role in social change.

1. Laws have been passed to eradicate social evils. Under Article 17 of the Indian
Constitution, untouchability is prohibited and its practice in any form is made
punishable. A comprehensive legislation called the Untouchability (Offences) Act,
1955 was passed later. This Act was further amended as the Protection of Civil
Rights Act in 1976. According to this Act, an untouchable (Scheduled Caste) has
access to all public places including places of worship. Though this legislation has
not been fully able to eradicate the practice of untouchability, it has definitely
attacked caste prejudice.
 2. Similarly, a number of laws have been enacted for the upliftment of women and
children. These Acts have brought about a perceptible improvement in their
position in society. The Special Marriage Act of 1954, the Hindu Marriage Act
of1955, the Hindu Succession Act of 1956and the Dowry Prohibition Act of1956
and the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961 have initiated changes in the very
structure of Hindu society.
3. Most of these legislations have further been amended to accommodate more
radical and relevant issues. For example, the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 was
amended in 1976 to provide the right to girl to deny marriage before attaining
puberty. In fact the original Act itself was radical because it enforces monogamy
and permitted divorce among the Hindus. The Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961 was
also amended in 1984 that made cruelty towards women a cognizable offence.
4. The socio-economic changes that have been brought about through legislations
have crated a favourable situation regarding the status of women.
5. A number of legislations have also been passed to safeguard and protect the
rights of children.Some of them are the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act,
1956, the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation Act, 1986, the Persons with
Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Protection) Act,
1996, the Juvenile justice Act, 2000 and so on.
6. The role of legislation in transforming the socio-economic condition of tribals
even more explicit We may throw light on this issue by citing the example of
north-eastern India, which is home to a large number of tribals. The tribal
communities of this region have experienced remarkable changes in their
traditional economy, cultural life and political systems.
7. • The safeguards provided to tribals in the states of Assam. Meghalaya, Tripura
and Mizoram under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India have
facilitated numerous programmes for administration development.
8. Special provisions under Article 371A of the Constitution have been made for the
State of Nagaland to safeguard the cultural identity of the Nagas. The State
Governments have passed several legislation which have ushered changes along
with preserving their identity.
9. The Autonomous District Councils established under the provisions of the Sixth
Schedule have been given wide power to maintain control over the tribal land The
Land Transfer Act of 1971passed by the Meghalaya State Legislature has almost
stopped the process of land alienation.
10.Likewise, the Lushei Hills District (Acquisition of Chief ‘s Right) Act, 1954 abolished
the age-old system of chieftainship among the Mizos as the people themselves
demanded it.

The Constitution of India aimed at securing justice liberty and equality to all to
constitute the country into a socialist, secular and democratic republic to.

1. Provide rule of law

2. Acc to DPSP enshrined in the commit-state assumed the responsibility of securing
adequate means and likelihood to all its times – A proper distribution of the
material resources – Preventing concentration of wealth to the common
 detriment The aim is to build up a social order which stands for welfare of all
sections of society.
3. The resonances of these commitments employing removal of poverty has
permeated into all the Five Year Plans in a tacit or categorical term.
4. Concludingly we can say that, in a democratic state like ours, legislation can be
effectively used as an interment of social change.

Education and Social Change in India

1. Education influences different domains of social life. It not only influences social
change, but also acts as an agent of social change. Education is the process of
facilitating learning or the acquisition of knowledge, skill, values, beliefs and
habits. Education engages itself in a much more positive action and can perform
the function of an initiator of change. It inculcates in the younger generation
whatever changes are desirable for rebuilding a society. Moreover, it cultivates
necessary intellectual and emotional readiness to deal with challenges of change.
2. Education is an important instrument of modernization. Modern values in social
economic and political spheres have to be instilled in the minds of people to
achieve the goal of modernization. Values such as equality, liberty, scientific
temper, humanism and ideas against blind faith pave the way for modernization.
This task can be effectively performed by education.
3. In ancient India education was provided by the family, kin group and society as
a whole through participation in daily life. But, as the needs and activities
increased in course of times, a more systematic means of instruction was
introduced and a specialized occupational group of teachers was formed The
Brahmans acted as formal teachers and were repositories of knowledge and
learning. Teaching centers functioned around individual scholars and the learning
process also emphasized the role of each individual student This system of
education emphasized more on life than on instruction. Thus curricula varied
from center to center. The transmission of religious ideas and the interpretation
of Gurukula and Vidyalayas. However, this educational system was available only
to small section of the population that constituted the upper layers of the Varna
hierarchy under the pressure of social and economic change.
4. Historically speaking modern education appeared in India with the
establishment of British rule. Initially, the British rulers supported traditional
schools and encouraged their expansion and growth. But by the middle of the
nineteen century, the colonial policy changed and a decision was taken to
introduce European literature and science in India. English was made the medium
of instruction in the higher branches of learning. This policy concentrated on the
education of the upper and middle classes. Little progress was made in
establishing a suitable system of primary education.According to one estimate in
1881-82,1in 10 boys and 1in 250 girls between the ages of 5 and 12 years
attended schools. About 90 per cent of the populations were illiterate even in the
early part of the twentieth century.The educational system thus not only
 maintained the gulf between the upper classes and the mass of the population
but also increased it further.

There was significant limitation of the educational policy of the colonial period

1. Priority given to higher education over primary education. The enrolment in

colleges and universities increased at a higher rate than in schools.
2. Modernization through education remained confined to the educated and elite
groups that ordinarily belonged to the upper castes. It hardly affected the mass of
the population.
3. However, the system of education introduced during the colonial rule had several
good points.
4. It gave a fundamentally different orientation to the educational system and laid
foundation of modern education in India.
5. Its content was liberal and modern. The teaching of several new branches of
learning such as science, technology and medicine created an environment
congenial for modernization.
6. The structure of educational institution was developed on professional lines. This
structure, which classified institutions under categories like primary schools, high
schools, college and university, continued even after the Independence.

Education in Indian Society has achieved amazing success during the last fifty-five
years. Its achievements, both in absolute and relative terms, have been remarkable. The
fact becomes more visible when we compare the present situation with the one existing
at the time of independence.We inherited an educational system which was largely
unrelated to national needs and aspiration. It was quantitatively small and qualitatively
poor. Only about 14 per cant of the country’s population were literate. Only one child
out of three had been enrolled in primary schools. In addition to low levels of enrolment
and literacy, regional and gender disparities were also very apparent The education
system faced problems of expansion, stagnation and wastage. It lacked
vocationalisation and had no relationship with the social and cultural needs of the
Indian society.

After the independence, it was recognized that education formed a vital aspect of the
modernization processes. Therefore, educational reform was accepted as an important
agenda of national development. A comprehensive constitutional and policy framework
was developed The successive Five-Year Plans augmented the goal by launching several
programmers of educational development.

We may assess the educational profile of India by first touching upon the literacy
scene.

1. In 1951, we had a literacy rate of 18.3 per cent which went up to 52.2 per cent in
the 1991 census. The rate of literacy, according to the 2001 census, was 65.38 per
cant.
2. While the literacy rate in the case of the male was 75.85 per cant, it was 54.16
per cent in the case of the female. It is apparent from these figures that there has
been unprecedented growth in the field of literacy in India.
3. The female literacy rate has increased by14.87 per cant as against 11.72 per cant
in the case of males. Such a remarkable progress in the rate of literacy has
primarily been due to two major factors. First, the government-sponsored
national campaign for literacy which has made tremendous impact As the scene
has been decentralized, its accountability has increased Second the considerable
involvement of Nongovernmental Organization (NGOs) which have made the
literacy campaign more flexible.
4. The expansion and the consolidation of elementary education have been equally
remarkable. Universalisation of Elementary Education (U.E.E.) has been accepted
as a national goal This programme envisages universal access, universal retention
and universal achievement.
5. Now, almost 94 per cant of country’s rural population have primary schools
within 1 km. At the upper primary stage 84 per cent of the rural population have
schools within a distance of 3 kins.
6. The enrolment at the primary stage has gone up from 42.60 per cant in 1950-51to
94.90 percent in 1999- 2000.Similarly, the number of primary and upper primary
schools has gone up from 2.23 lakh in 1950-51 to 8.39 lakh in 1999-2000 and the
number of teachers in these schools from 6.24 lakh in 1999-2000.
7. A new scheme called Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) has been launched to pursue
universal elementary education in mission mode. The goals of SSA are to send all
children in the age groups of 6-14 to school by 2003 so that they complete five
year of primary education by 2007 and complete eight year of schooling by 2010.
8. Secondary education acts as a bridge between elementary and higher education.
It prepares young persons of the age groups of 14-18 for entry into higher
education. There were 1.10 lakh secondary and senior secondary institutions in
1999 in the country. 272 lakh students were enrolled in these institutions, of
which 101 lakh were girls. In 1999, there were 15.42 lakh teachers in these
schools. The vocationlisation of secondary education has been implemented
since1998.
9. The expansion of institutions of higher education has also been exceptional. On
the eve of the independence the country had only18 universities. Now there are
259. There are 11,089 colleges and 119 autonomous colleges. The growth of
technical and professional institutions has been equally phenomenal. At present,
these are 7000 teacher education colleges,110 polytechnics, 600 management
institutes, 550 engineering and technology colleges and 170 medical colleges.
10.Apart from expansion and spread of education opportunities at different levels,
special emphasis has been put to improve the status of women through
education. It is believed that empowerment of women is a critical precondition
for their participation in the development processes. Girl child has now become a
target group. Similarly, educational development of the Scheduled Castes and the
Scheduled Tribes has received added attention.
The educational scenario presented above quite evidently looks impressive, but actual
efforts have fallen far short of the goaL The National Policy on Education envisages that
free and compulsory education should be provided to all children up to the age of 14
years. This target of universalizing elementary education is yet to be achieved.

Social Change brought about in the Indian society by the spread of education :

1. The transition from ‘class education’ (education for a few] to ‘mass education’
(education for all) has widened the scope of unlimited entry into the educational
system.
2. The groups and communities who were deprived of access to education have now
joined the national mainstream of development.
3. It has not only disseminated universal values such as equality and humanism but
it has also transmitted scientific world view. Education has been one of the most
important factors in transforming the outlook and attitude of the people.
4. The quantitative expansion of education has spread into every nook and corner of
the country. It has shaken the age-old inertia and indifference towards education.
The phenomenal growth of literacy and education among women is
unprecedented It has radically transformed their attitude and improved their
status within and outside the families. Their economic contribution has also
become conspicuous. The difference in attitude towards boys and girls is no
longer prevalent as before. Such a change in society’s attitude towards women s
role has enabled them to enter spheres of occupational activities that were
virtually closed to them.
5. As a result of the expansion of education, the degree of mobility among the
member of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes has considerably
increased The overall state of affairs, however, is not so encouraging in this
respect The problems associated with these disadvantaged groups have been so
deep rooted that their solution requires overhauling of the social system itself.
The national policy of providing equal opportunities as well as special
opportunities to the underprivileged classes has begun giving positive results.
Member of these communities have achieved considerable success in
education.The rate of literacy has increased and the enrolment in primary and
secondary schools has improved a great deal. Of course, their presence in higher
education is still very low. The upper castes continue to dominate almost all areas
of higher education.
6. It should be apparent by now that education has acted as a strange modernizing
force in Indian society. It is changing the world view of the people. The growth of
educational institutions based on the rational principle of science is itself an
expression of modernization.
7. Increasing urge for education among the deprived and the downtrodden reveals
change in their levels of aspirations. It has given an additional responsibility to the
education system. The education system till Independence catered to the needs
of the upper and the middle classes.A momentous change has occurred in this
situation after Independence. A large number of lower caste children have
 entered educational institutions at all levels. Their aspiration and abilities being
different, a new orientation is necessary to find out their talents and capacity so
that their educational needs can be fulfilled.
8. Levels and the degree of mobility have also been influenced by education. Studies
in India suggest that mobility at the level of caste generally operates in the socio-
cultural domains and in respect of pollution and purity. Such changes are,
however, reflected through changes in customs, practices, occupations,
education and income of particular groups.Although these changes do not bring
large scale change in the structure of stratification, some families or groups of
families may raise their status within their own castes and in relation to some
other castes. What we are trying to emphasize is that, education has played an
important role in effecting mobility at the individual level which is gradually
spreading out to the group level.
9. Increase in the number of caste-free occupations is thoroughly the result of
educational progress in the country. Education is a major element in the honour
assigned to occupations. It plays a major role in determining what occupation one
will achieve and, in turn, the level of one’s income.

Ambedkar’s view on Education and social change. Ambedkar believed that education
would greatly contribute to improvement of untouchables. He always exhorted his
followers to reach excellence in the field of knowledge. Knowledge is liberating force.
Education makes man enlightened makes him aware of this self respect and also help
his to lead a better life materially one of the cases of the degradation of untouchables
was that they ware denied the right to education.Ambedkar criticized the British policy
on education for not adequately encouraging education among the lower castes. He felt
that even under the British rule education continued mainly to be an upper caste
monopoly. Therefore he mobilized the lower castes and the untouchables and funded
various centers of learning while a labour member in the executive council of the
governor-general he was instrumental in extending scholarships for education abroad to
the untouchable to undergo both liberal education and technical education. He was
particularly opposed to education under religions auspices. He warned that only secular
education could instill the values of liberty and equality among the students.

CRITIQUE :
However, as we move away from the spectacular gains of education in India since
Independence we are confronted with the problem which the Indian system of
education is facing today. The problems of standard content and the social purpose of
education are basic to our system of education. Several sociologists like

A.R. Desai S.C. Dube, M.S. Gore, K. Ahmad and A.B. Shah etc., have focused upon the
issue of education as an instrument for social reconstruction and modernization.

1. Ahmad has said that although formal education can play a vital role in ‘ideational’
change through transformation of knowledge, attitudes and values of the people,
its effectiveness in bringing about structural changes in society is extremely
 limited This is because of the linkages between the existing practices and
procedures in education and vested interests.
2. A.R. Desai too, has questioned the validity of education as an instrument of social
change. His contention is that after independence, education has not been
purposively geared to obtain the desired changes. He has criticized the policies
and funding and financing of education to attain the goals of social mobility and
equality. To support Desai, we can give the example of education of SCs, STs,
women and the minorities which has failed in uplifting their status. The
unemployment and under-employment of uneducated youth is another example
of failure of education for achieving the aspirations of youths. The failure to
achieve development of the rural areas and alleviating poverty is yet another
example. Unless the pattern set by the prevailing distribution of power is broken
and there is a tilt in the policies towards the poor, it will be difficult to find
resources for the necessary transformation. Change in higher education is also
necessary for social change.
3. M. S. Gore has pointed out the necessity of change in the content and methods of
education in the environment and context in which it is conducted and in the
convictions and the commitment of teachers and administrators responsible for
education for the effectiveness of education in achieving the required
development.
4. Some empirical studies have been conducted in India on the relationship between
education and modernization. One such study was conducted by the NCERT in
Delhi covering eight states. These studies described the extent to which the
attitudes, aspirations and outlook of school and college students and teachers in
the country have ‘modernized’. Modernization in these studies was measured in
terms of an adaptation of a scale developed by Alex Inkles. The results pointed
out low effect of education on modernization. Students continue to be traditional
in matters of family life, etc.
5. Yogendra Singh conducted a study into the implications of attitudes and values of
teachers in Rajasthan University to modernization. This study measured the levels
of aspirations, commitment, morale and authoritarianism among university
teachers with a view to understanding how the role structures and value systems
of teachers affect their role as agents of modernization. He found significant
relationships between the two and thus held that teacher’s values influence the
modernization of students. These issues have to be seriously debated and
remedies evolved to make the system more effective and persuasive. As the
nation has accepted the significance of education for the social and economic
development of the country, its educational planning has to move in this
direction. The report of the India Education Commission, entitled Education and
National Development, forcefully stated, “Education cannot be considered in
isolation or planned in a vaccuum. It has to be used as a powerful instrument of
social, economic and political change”
 Rural and Agrarian transformation in India
Programmes of Rural Development, Community Development Programme,
Cooperatives, Poverty Alleviation Schemes in India
Programmes of Rural Development and Community Development Programmes

Economic Aspect Social Aspect Social Aspect

Agricultural Productivity Rural Housing Transport & Communication

Land Improvement Drinking Water Small Scale Industries

Minor irrigation Electrification

Animal Husbandry Education Village & Cotton

Fisheries Family Welfare Industry

Minor Forest Produce

MEANING OR CONCEPT OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Rural development is defined as improving living standards of the mass of low-income
population residing in rural areas and making the process of their development self-
sustaining. It embraces all those programmes that touch all levels of human living e.g.
agriculture and related matters, irrigation, communication, education health,
supplementary employment, housing, training and social welfare.The concept of rural
development is a much broader concept than the concept of agricultural development
While agricultural development is concerned primarily with cultivation and allied
activities, rural development embraces all areas and activities, including agriculture.
Since agriculture is the mainstay of the people living in rural areas, more attention is
focused on the issues related with agricultural sector.

First Phase of Rural Development

Community Development Programme (1952) CDP emerged as a result of inspiration
derived from the success of same earlier pre-independence programmes for rural
development It looked at village as a common community – having a common interest
of villagers. For Nehru and others CDP are of vital importance not in terms of
materialistic achievements but much more so because they seem to build up
community as well as individual; making them builder of their own village.
 1. According to Planning Commission CDP is a method through which FYP seeks to
initiate a process of transformation of the social and economic life of the villages.
2. From these definitions it is clear that CDP is committed towards the
transformation of all socio-eco-politico cultural life of villagers and it is possible
only with the initiative of local people.
3. Major emphasis was given on-(i) Achievement of self-reliance among people (ii)
Ending dependency on others (stability) by lowering down the interference of
external agency.

Background and Initiation of CDP :

Although the programme was started in India with the help of USA, but following
experiments have been the source of inspiration for the emergence of CDP.

1. Intensive rural development activities carried out at sevagram and the Sarvodaya
centers in the Bombay State.
2. Nilokheri Projects started byS.K. Dayat Nilokhari of Karnal district in Haryana to
rehabilitate 6000 refugees.
3. Etawah Project: under the inspiration of Albert Mayers 97 villages of Etawah
district were included in it with the objective initiating multi-purpose schemes to
achieves self-reliance. Also done in Gorakhpur district of UP.
4. Faridabad Project: Under the inspiration Sri Ghosh, 30,000 refugees were
rehabilitated and the village was converted into a town.
5. Firca Development Scheme (Firca is group of 5 villages) :Started in Madras on
Gandhian principles. It had two major objective: Development of personality of
villagers & Bringing change in the ideology of village reconstruction.

The programme was launched on 2nd Oct 1952 and was extended is consider areas at
the end of the1st FYP. 603 National Extension service Blocks and 553 CDP Blocks
covering1,57,000 villages and a population of 88.8 million persons were created.

CDP is broadly divided into three phases, viz,

1. National extension phase: Areas selected were subjected to methods of

providing services on ordinary pattern with little government expenditure.
2. Intensive Community Development phase: Blocks selected for purpose were
subjected to intensive development schemes with high government expenditure.
3. Post development phase: It was presumed that initial two phases have created a
self-perpetuating process so, government role was reduced to only supervisory
role.

Fundamental Beliefs :
S.C. Dubey has mentioned following fundamental beliefs to remove the discrepancy
between the mentality of planners and people, essentially:

1. Development should be according to villagers

 2. Implementation of plans to be done by humble request rather than by
compulsion
3. Special emphasis of recruitment, orientation and training of community
Development workers
4. Achievement of stability.

ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE
At Central Level

1. Establishment of committee
 Members of Planning commission
 Ministers of concerned Department
 PM (Chairman)
2. Functions :
 Policy formulation
 Observation of running activities

At state level – State Development committee

1. Organization
 CM (Chairman)
 Ministers of condoned depts.
 Secretary
2. Functions :
 Receipt of Policies from the centre and deliverance of progress and amendments
to centre
 Establishing coordination among different .
 Acknowledgement of distt level activities.

Attached with Panchayats – At District level

 Coordinator – District collector

 Members and Chairman of Zila Parishad work after the activities

At Block level

1. Block Panchayat committee

 Looks after the policies
2. Organisation
 BDO
 Agriculture
 Cooperatives
 Specialist
 Cattle-Rearing
 Extension officer
Gram Panchayats

1. Organisation
 Village Prime (Sarpanch)
 Gram Sevak
2. Role of Gram Sevak :
 Being a multi-purpose person, he adopts the following ways to make CDP a
programme of the mass.
 To establish informal relations with the villagers to keep up the mutual faith.
 To resolve the problems of villagers and to ignite as interest among them towards
a good life-style so that they could raise their living standard by adopting the
available resources.
 To help village prepare (programmes) policies of development for them.
 To develop leadership among villagers.
3. Field of Activities :
 An imposing list of activities has been prepared by the sponsors of CDP. They
included various items connected with the following eight categories of
undertakings:
 Agriculture and related matters,
 Communications,
 Education
 Health
 Training
 Social Welfare
 Supplementary Employment, and(VIII) Housing

The fourth Evaluation Report of 1957 adopted different criteria for classifying
activities undertaken by the CDP. They divided the programmes of activities into the
following major categories:

1. Constructional Programmes : Kuteha and Pucca roads, culverts drains, pavement

of streets, school buildings, community centre buildings, dispensary buildings,
houses for the Harijans and drinking water resources.
2. Irrigational Programmes: Wells, pumping sets, type wells and tanks.
3. Agricultural Programmes: Reclamation, soil conservation, consolidation of
holidings, improved seeds, manure and fertilizer, pesticides.
4. Institutional and other Programmes: Youth clubs, women’s organizations,
community centres, cooperative societies, distribution stores, maternity centres,
dispensaries, veterinary dispensaries, panchayats, adult literacy centres, primary
schools, cottage industries, etc.

Contribution in Development :

1. Achievement of belief of the Mass: It includes belief in progress of village areas, in

democracy, in science and technology, in capacities of rural people and in social
justice.
 2. Achievement of Mass Participation: through democratic decentralization.
3. Growth in Collective Efforts to solve commo problems.
4. Dimensions of Administrative Change :It has changed even the nature of
administration.
 Change in Traditional Ideologies : by use of scientific techniques in agriculture,
horticulture, rearing of animals etc.The evaluation of Intensive Agriculture District
Programme has testified that the Indian Farmer, inspite of being illiterate and
poor, is not likely to remain affixed with unnecessary traditions. They are always
adoptive to new changes under his capacities.
 Decrease in Rural Unemployment : but not to a great extent According to the
study team of Balwant Rai Mehta, only 2.5% families have got the benefits
through CDP.
 Awareness toward Health and Hygiene.
 Cultural Development : N. Patnaik in his study of Orissa reveals that CDP has
freed the poor people from the clutches of self-conflict and non-sympathy.

Evaluation :
The impact of the CDP has been subjected to analysis and evaluation by a number of
scholars and organizations Prof Wilson, Prof Carl Taylor, Oscar Lewis, Prof. Opler and his
team, S.C. Dubey, Mandelbaum and many others have attempted to assess the nature
of the impact of the CDP on the life of the rural people. The Programme Evaluation
Organization has also been doing assessment continuously and their Reports are
valuable documents.

1. According to Prof Taylor, the administration of the programme is predominantly

based on aid from and reliance on the Govt The initiative of people is still lacking.
The Govt machinery relies more on propaganda and spectacular results rather
than on group work and voluntary creative participation. The bureaucrats seem
more committed towards showing the facts rather than focusing on mass-
participation. Naturally, under these circumstances the very basis of CDP would
crumble.
2. S.C. Dubey also comes to same conclusion. “Planning so far appears to be from
the top down. It is necessary to examine the implications and results of the
present trends in planning. Because of the unique curbs on projects autonomy its
officials hesitated to destructrate much initiative. What was worse they extended
on this official level to accept orders from above i.e., from the state HQs, without
question or comment, and this despite pronounced private reservations. As an
outcome of this trend the officials were oriented less towards the village people,
and more towards, the pleasing of their official superiors.”

Dubey further adds-A large number of Project-sponsored activities are directed along
the lines of traditional govt drives rather than according to the proved principles of
extension work. According to Dubey, govt servants function as bureaucrats and have
not become agents of change with an active social mentality.
S.C. Dubey finds the following obstacle is the way of the qreater acceptance of the
programs :

1. Suspicion and distrust of officials and outsiders.

2. Failure on the part of the Project to evolve effective and adequate media of
communication.
3. Traditional and cultural factors.

J.F. Bulsara presented the project evaluation report in 1957 :

1. Physical change, especially constructional and irrigational activity, is widespread

and has contributed in some measure to the production potential and the social
over-heads of the block areas.
2. Change in production attitudes in agriculture and animal husbandry are
comparatively successful while those concerning cottage industries are neither
widespread nor particularly successful.
3. • Changes in standard of living, especially in regard to primary education and
drinking water are comparatively successful while those concerning adult literacy
and personal and environmental hygiene are not equally successful.
4. Social attitudes such as readiness to go in for community centres, youth clubs,
and women’s organizations is least successful
5. Change in organizational attitudes in the political field such a better
understanding of the objectives and obligations of cooperation and readiness to
make use of cooperative societies for purposes other than credit such as
production and marketing are comparatively unsuccessful
6. Change in organizational attitudes in the political field such as better
understanding of the objectives and responsibilities of panchayat membership
and readiness to use panchayats for planning and executing village development
programmes are comparatively unsuccessful

Suggestions by Bulsara :

1. The emphasis should not be so much on construction activities and targets as on

people’s constructive orientation into initiating and undertaking progressivelyto
say responsibility for satisfying local needs, so that they may soon develop the
skill and mention to accomplish such schemes as would improve their overall
standards of living physically, culturally and in the spiritual sphere.
2. The administrative structure has to be refitted into the new would, necessaryfor
the implementation of the vast community D.P. in what has come to be a welfare
state, based on a socialistic pattern of society. It must include all ranks of officers
and field workers-administrative, technical clerical and ministerial
3. The Gram Sevak, being a pivotal liason functionary his training and orientation
have to be carried out according to the work expected of him. Refreshers courses
and seminars should be a regular feature of his training and equipment
 4. For effective participation, training is essential and it would be helpful to the total
programme if capable youths and adults of both sexes from the villages are given
opportunities, so that the very objective of the programme be fulfilled that it is
not for the people but by them.

Others Observations :

1. CDP created community dependence on government rather than self-

dependence.
2. Village divided into various sectional interests where interest of landed class was
not common with service and occupational castes.
3. Bureaucracy responsible for its implementation lacked social service ethos.
4. Development Communication was top down that led to confusion regarding
functions within the bureaucratic organization.
5. Land owners were the prime beneficiaries of CDP.
6. Gram Sewak was often from land owning communities, he was only succeeded in
heightening inequalities.
7. Much emphasis on economic aspect with little emphasis on social and spatial
aspect Strategy.
8. Satya dev found out that how co- operatives benefited to the local dominant
castes that used loans for the co-operatives, occupied various posts of the co-
operatives and subsequently hijacked subsidy benefits meant for the rural poor.

2ND PHASE OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT

1. Land Reforms – 60’s (early)

2. Green Revolution -mid 60’s

Land Reforms : The failure of CDP led to the land reforms in early 60’s.

The primary objectives of land reforms :

1. To remove motivational and other impediments which arise from the agrarian
structure inherited from the past, and
2. To eliminate all elements of exploitation and social justice within the agrarian
system so as to ensure equality of status and opportunity to all sections of the
population.

Programmes of action to achieve these objectives :

1. The abolition of all forms of intermediaries between the state and the tiller of the
soiL
2. Conferment of ownership rights on the cultivating tenants in the land held under
their possession.
3. Imposition of ceiling on agricultural land holdings.
 4. Consolidation of holdings with a view of making easier the application of modern
techniques of agriculture,
5. Rationalization of the record of rights in land For detail refer to Rural and Agrarian
Social-Structure-Land Reform)

Critique of land reforms :

1. Implementation of land reforms was not as expected

2. Abolition of intermediaries was a success. Nearly twenty million households
become landlords but it did not benefit land labourers.
3. Ceiling was fixed very high of doubly cropped irrigated land which generated less
surplus.
4. Sizeable part of land remained locked in court cases even beneficiaries could not
be properly identified.
5. According to Alexandra George the ceiling laws were merely a maneuver for
political ends.
6. According to Bandopadhyay ceiling was very high.Still 12% land could be declared
surplus. But in reality only 1.8% was declared as surplus.
7. According to V.M. Dandekar barely1% of area has been redistributed 99%
remained unchanged except for West Bengal where 10% was surplus and 7% was
distributed.

Green Revolution
In mid 60’s land reforms were followed by Green Revolution.After two wars (Indo-Pak
and Indo China) the planning strategy shifted from self sufficiency to self -reliance which
required increased level of production. High Yielding varieties were introduced to
increase the production which gave a great impetus to Indian agriculture.

Consequences of Green Revolution :

1. A middle peasant class structure emerged where rich landlords at the top
followed by middle peasantry and then landless labouerers and small peasantry.
2. Resource distribution was highly skewed at rural level due to which there was
straight correlation between caste and class.
3. It results in more inequality where wages increased but the difference was
maintained
4. HDG group (NGO) found that wages increased by 89% but the price rises by 93%
5. Bhalla and Chadha in their study on Punjab observed that in long run labour
demand increased But after mechanization, labour demand decreases. Increase in
land alienation.
6. Francis Frawell found that green revolution is successful in wheat growing areas.
Polarization is much greater in Green Revolution areas.
7. According to Joan Mencher in Chingleput even official attitude was to ignore the
farmers having 5 acres of land Money begets money. Very few farmers in lowest
 category who owned a tube well got the benefits. Thus benefits accrued
unequally so disparity increased.

3RD PHASE OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT

1. Area Centric programmes – 70’s

2. Employment Poverty alleviation 80’s.

Post Green Revolution – Soon after green revolution it was realized that the benefits
were not accrued by the poor farmers.Structured mass poverty remained intact Rate of
rural unemployment also increased Government focused its attention on two key areas;

Area development programmes :

1. Draught prone Area Programme

2. Hill Area development Programme
3. Command Area development

Programmes meant for specific groups and areas :

1. 20 point programme
2. Rural electrification programme
3. Comprehensive child development programmes
4. Informal literacy plan etc.
5. Eighties saw versatile programme touching different aspect of rural development
but with special emphasis on poverty alleviation and employment centric
programmes.
6. Indira Awas Yojana
7. Rural cleanliness programme
8. Crop Insurance Scheme
9. Social Security Insurance Scheme
10.National rural employment scheme
11.Rural landless employment guarantee scheme etc.
12.Minimum Need Programme
 Increased productivity:
 Growth
 Employment
 Generation
13.Poverty alleviation.

Critique :

1. Growth with redistribution was the slogan in 80’s but growth remained lack sided
2. Social Work Research Centre found that agricultural workers were employed for 3
months only.
 3. Class conflict took caste dimension. Political leaders and bureaucrats lacked the
will to disturb this dimension.
4. Landless labourers were unable to create demands.
5. Fourth rural labour enquiry commission (1983) observed that almost half of the
population was in perpetuative debt These debts have little chance to repaid
6. There was a decline in poverty but in absolute number poverty.
7. We had a subsidy based approach to pull people above poverty line which at best
created a perpetual dependence upon state.
8. They remain highly vulnerable enough to return back to poverty.

4TH PHASE OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Steps taken during 90 s became the watershed in strategies of rural development. The
Indian economy was getting alienated with the world economy. Technological
upgradation was also lacking.In this background 90’s saw open policy of Liberalization,
Privatization and Globalization. Privatization implies a greater role for private enterprise
and capital in the functioning of an economy. Liberalization implies giving greater
freedom to economic agents to take their own economic decisions. Globalization means
increasing integration between different economies, cultures, societies of the world.

POVERTY ALLEVIATION SCHEMES

1. Many poverty alleviation schemes have been launched by the central government
for the rural poor, comprising small and marginal farmers, landless labourers and
rural artisans. The important programmes currently functioning are:
 20 Point Programme: Launched for reducing poverty and economic exploitation
and for the uplift of the weaker sections of society. The important goals were:
controlling inflation, giving impetus to production, welfare of the rural
population, lending help to the urban middle classes and controlling social
crimes.
2. The programmes included in the 20 point programme were: increase in
irrigational facilities, increase in pogrammes for rural employment, distribution of
surplus land minimum wages to landleless labourers, rehabilitation of bonded
labour, uplift of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, growth of
housing facilities, increasing power production, formulating new programmes of
family planning, tree plantation, extension of primary health facilities,
programmes for the welfare of the women and children, making primary
education measures more effective, strengthening of public distribution system,
simplification of industrial policies, control of black money, betterment of
drinking water facilities and developing internal resources.
3. The Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) was launched by the
centre in 20 selected districts, but from October 1982, it was extended to all
districts in the country. This programme considers a household as the basic unit
of development IRDP is a major instrument of the government to alleviate
poverty. Its objective is to enable selected families to cross the poverty line by
taking up self-employment ventures in a variety of activities like agriculture,
 horticulture and animal husbandry in the primary sector, weaving and handicrafts
in the secondary sector and service and business activities in the tertiary sector.
 The aim of the IRDP is to see that a minimum stipulated number of families are
enabled to cross the poverty line within the limits of a given investment and in a
given time-frame. Thus, the three variables involved are: (a) number of poor
households, (b) resources available for investment, and (c) the time-span over
which the investment would yield an income which would enable the family to
cross the poverty line.
 A number of institutions have undertaken studies with respect to the
implementation of working of the IRDP. They point out flaws in the
implementation of the programme. None of these studies have, however,
questioned the utility of the programme.The main criticisms against this scheme
are:
 There are leakages in the programme and all assets created under IRDP are not
with the poor.Thus is mainly because of three factors: the poor are unable to pay
large bribes, fill up complicated forms, influence the. village headman and find
‘guarantors’ for themselves; bank officials are often reluctant to deal with poor
borrowers because they believe that giving loans to the poor is risky since
recovery is often used as a major indicator of the performance of a particular
branch of a rural bank; the poor themselves take inadequate interest in the
programme because they are afraid of being cheated or of not being able to
repay.
 There is much corruption, misuse and malpractice in the implementation of the
loan programme.The loans are often misallocated with little apparent violation of
the guidelines of the schemes.
 The programme is household- based and is not integrated with the development
needs or resource base of the area. Thus, the IRDP loan neither raises the living
standards of the beneficiaries nor does it have any impact on rural poverty by
raising the poor people above the poverty line. This has been indicated by studies
in several districts in Rajasthan, Gujarat, West Bengal Uttar Pradesh and
Karnataka. The latest study was conducted in seven districts in Rajasthan under a
World Bank project on poverty.
4. The scheme called Training Rural Youth for Self-Employment was started on
August 15, 1979 to provide technical skills to the rural youth to enable them to
seek employment in the fields of agriculture, industry, services and business
activities. Only youth in the age group of 18-35 and belonging to families living
below the poverty line are eligible for training. Priority for selection is given to
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribe persons, ex-servicemen and those who are
ninth pass. One-third seats are reserved for women, Stipend to the trainee’s
ranges from Rs. 75 to Rs. 200 per month. On completion of training, TRYSEM
beneficiaries are assisted under the IRDP.

The main criticisms against this progrmmeare:

Its coverage is verysmall in relation to need; skills provided have not been linked with
rural industrialization process.Trainingis provided on the basis of ad hoc considerations
and skills imparted are of low level and amount of stipend is rather inadequate to
motivate the youth to go for training.

The National Rural Employment Programme (NREP) was planned for creating
additional employment
opportunities in the rural areas with the help of surplus foodgrains.

1. Initially, this programme was called Food for Work Programme (FWP). Under this
scheme, millions of man days of employment were created every year by utilizing
lakhs of tonnes of foodgrains.
2. The works undertaken were flood protection, maintenance of existing roads,
construction of new link roads, improvement of irrigation facilities, improvement
of irrigation facilities, construction of panchayat ghats, school buildings, medical
and healthy centres and improvement of sanitation conditions in the rural areas.
3. It took care of those rural poor who largely depended on wage employment and
virtually had no source of income in the lean agricultural period These important
points on which stress was laid in the implementation of this programme were:
10 per cent allocation was earmarked exclusively for drinking water well in
harijans colonies and community irrigation schemes in Harijan areas. Likewise,
another 10 per cent was earmarked for social forestry and fuel plantations; only
such works were undertaken which had some durability. Allocations were made
both at the inter-state and inter-district/block levels. The central government
released the state’s share of the NREP allocation in cash every quarter.
Maintenance of assets created under this programme was the responsibility of
the state governments. PRIs were actively involved in this programme. This
programme has now been merged in Jawahar Rozgar Yojana.
4. The Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP) aimed at
providing supplemental employment to the poor on public works at a very low
wage of Rs. 3 per day. Maharashtra was one state which had used the
Employment GuaranteeScheme (EGS) for the unemployed in rural areas by
levying EGS surcharge or collections land revenue, sales tax, motor vehicles,
irrigated holdings and on professionals. The amounts so collected with matching
contributions from the state government, were credited to an EGS fund for taking
up employment works.This programme too has now been merged into the JRY.
5. Jawahar Rozgar Yojana: Under the scheme, it is expected that at least one
member of each poor family would be provided with employment for 50 to 100
days in a year at a work place near his/ her residence. About 30 per cent of the
jobs under this scheme are reserved for women. Both the rural wage
employment programmes (i.e., the REP and the RLEGP) were merged in this
scheme. Central assistance to the scheme is 80 per cent The scheme is
implemented through village panchayats. This scheme covers 46 per cent of our
population.
6. Antyodaya Programme: Antyodaya’ means development (udaya) of the people
at the lowest level that is, the poorest of the poor. This programme for special
assistance to the people below the poverty line.The idea was to select five of the
poorest families from each village every year and to help them in their economic
 betterment Initially, a random survey was undertaken in 25 villages situated in
different ecological region of the state and information about individual families
with regard to indebtedness, dependency ratio, physical assets of land, cattle,
occupation, educational level, income and size of the family was collected
Thereafter, a detailed scheme of Antyodaya was frown up.
7. The task of identification of the families was entrusted to the village assembly
(Gram Sabha). Under this scheme, help was given in the form of allotting land for
cultivation, monthly pension, bank loan or help in getting employment. Each
selected family was given a pension of Rs. 30-40 per month. A bank loan was
sanctioned for purchasing bullocks, carts, animal husbandry (purchasing
buffaloes, cows, goats and pigs), basket making, purchasing carpentry tools,
operating a tailor’s shop or tea shop or a barber’s shop or a grocer’s shop and for
manufacturing activities like soap-making etc.
8. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme:

Salient Features of the Programme :

Right Based Frame work :

1. Adult members of a rural household who are willing to do unskilled manual work
may apply for registration to the local Gram Panchayat, in writing, or orally.
2. The Gram Panchayat after the verification will issue a Job Cart The Job Cart will
bear the photograph of all adult members of the household and is free of cost
3. A job Card holding household can submit a written application for employment to
the Gram Panchayat, stating the time and duration for which work is sought.

Time Bound Guarantee

1. The Gram Panchayat will issue a dated receipt of the written application for
employment, against which guarantee of providing employment within 15 days
operates. If employment is not provided within 15 days, daily unemployment
allowance, in cash has to be paid Liability of payment of unemployment
allowance is of the States.
2. Work should ordinarily be provided within 5 km radius of the village or else extra
wages of 10% are payable.
3. Wages are to be paid according to minimum wages. Disbursement of wages has
to be done on weekly basis and not beyond a fortnight.

Women Empowerment

1. At least one-third of persons to whom work is allotted, work have to be women.

Work Site Facilities

1. Work site facilities such a creche, drinking water, shade have to be provided
Decentralized Planning

1. The shelf of project has to be prepared by Gram Sabha. At least 50% of works
have to be allotted to Gram Panchayats, for execution. Panchayat Raj Institutions
(PRIs) have a principle role in planning and implementation.

Labour Intensive Works

1. A 60-40 wage and material ratio has to be contained Contractors and use of
labour displacing machinery is prohibited.

Public Accountability

1. Social Adult has to be done by the Gram Sabha.

2. Grievance redressal mechanisms have to be put in place for ensuring a responsive
implementation process.

Transparency

1. All accounts and records relating to the Scheme are to be made available to any
person desirous of obtaining a copy of such records, on demand and after paying
a specified fee.

Evaluation of Programmes
Various studies have shown that programmes have not been able to make a dent in the
poverty level of the rural people. A large mass of villagers still live without basic
needs.This is because,

1. Policies are guided by ideologies of politicians and bureaucrats whims rather than
by compulsions of the ground realities and requirements of the rural people, with
the result that the dimensions of rural economy are ignored.
2. Since every programme is launched often with an eye to the next election, the
programme is carried out in a piecemeal fashion and many programmes thus
wither away after some time.
3. Programmes are designed in such a way that they are in fact imposed on the rural
economy without taking into accounting their unique vocational patterns and
local requirements. Consequently, the assets created are not durable.
4. Programmes focus more on the agricultural sector. Rural industrialization seems
to be getting nowhere near the attention that it deserves.
5. Despite the fact that the government has given top priority to agricultural
production and productivity, removal of social and economic disparities and
reduction in income inequalities, the fruits of these schemes, have not reached
the poorest in all parts of the country. Water resources, credit, subsidy and other
facilities have been usurped by a handful of big farmers and the medium and
poor farmers have to buy these things at a much higher price.
 6. There is no coordination among various programmes. After the merger of various
employment pogrammes into the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana, the government is even
now not able to pass on funds to the panchayats on time.
7. Officials associated with these programmes do not appear to have much faith in
the goals set by the government They lack commitment to the roles assigned to
time.As such, they take least pains either in creating necessary awareness among
people for the success of these programmes or in getting their cooperation and
confidence. No wonder, the government has not been able to use even the
available resources in the most effective manner.
8. •Central funds in schemes likeJawahar Rozgar Yojna are diverted for party
purposes by the states. For example, one study has revealed that money
sanctioned by the central government for new irrigation wells in Nalgonda district
in Andhra Pradesh were swindled and nota single well was sunk (as shown in the
Shyam Senegal’s Film Well Done Abba). Planning by itself is not enough.What
really matters is sincere and honest efforts on the part of the implementing
agencies to make anti-poverty drive a big success.

Green Revolution and Social Change in India

The fundamental change and phenomenal increase in food grains production in late
sixties in India has
earned the name of ‘Green Revolution’. The word ‘green’ here refers to green fields of
the countryside and ‘revolution ‘indicates a substantial change.

Story of Green Revolution in India

1. The availability of adequate food grains has been a serious problem in the
country. Food grains had to be imported from the developed countries to feed
the vast population. Shortage of food was mainly caused by low productivity of
land over-dependence on monsoon and the outmoded agrarian structure. Under
these conditions, achieving self-sufficiency in food grains became the top priority
of our national efforts.
2. The new agricultural strategy was based on the thinking that intensive
application of science and technology in agriculture would bear fruits in the
form of massive increase in food grain production. Under this strategy, adopted
in early sixties, agricultural development programmes were revised to the
needs of the farmers.
3. The Intensive Agricultural District Programme (IADP), popularly known as the
Package Programme, was started in1961on a pilot basis in seven district of the
country.The programme was subsequently extended to cover some other
districts. It aimed at combining improved technology credit, high yielding seeds
and assured irrigation for stepping up agricultural production. This experiment of
intensive agriculture yielded significant results. Production of food grains
remarkably increased and the programme was extended to cover larger areas. It
 resulted in giving rise to a new progrmme called the Intensive Agricultural Area
Programme (IAAP).
4. Encouraged by the unprecedented success of this programme some other
schemes were introduced in late sixties. They included the High-Yielding
Varieties Programme (HYVP). Small Farmer’s Development Agency (SFDA) and
the Marginal Farmers and Agricultural Labourers Development Scheme
(MFALDS). All these schemes were supplemented by the assured supply of inputs
like fertilizers, pesticides institutional credit and increased irrigational facility.
Among all these programmes, the HYVP made spectacular impact The progressive
increase in areas under high yielding varieties resulted in substantial increase in
food grain production. Wheat production more than doubled by 1977-78 and rice
production also started increasing. The progress under maize, jawar and bajra
was; however, rather slow, but did not remain too far.
5. Green Revolution, which saw the light of the day in the late sixties; has sustained
till date. It began with Wheat Revolution. Other crops like pulses, jawar, maize
and bajra also did not remain too far. It was widespread and it continued its
journey from Punjab to other regions of the country. Now we are not only self-
sufficient in food grains but also have started exporting it. Our view in this regard
is amply supported by the latest food grains statistics available to us.

Socio-economic Consequences of Green Revolution

Green Revolution has certainly improved the food situation in the country. It has solved
the problem of
hunger and has given a strong base to the Indian economy for further growth. It has
transformed the mindset of farmers.

However; the impact of this programme has not been equally favourable for all
sections of agrarian population. Green Revolution has brought destabilizing impact on
the socio-economic conduction of small and poor peasants, share-croppers and
landless agricultural labourers.

1. The new technology and the other inputs such as improved seeds, fertilizers,
pesticides, water etc., are beyond the reach of small and marginal farmers.
Naturally some regions with large landholdings like Punjab have performed better
than others like Bihar and Orissa where marginal and poor farmers are in plenty
and institutional credit is not easily available. This has widened the gap between
the small and the rich farmers.
2. The affluent farmers are enjoying the fruit of increased profits from land but the
real wage rate for agricultural labourers has been declining in most places. Most
of the share-croppers are now joining the rank of landless labourers because
small holdings are not available for leasing out to these share croppers.
3. Economic inequality in agrarian sector has widened resulting in increased agrarian
unrest in rural areas. During the late sixties and the early seventies numerous
cases of conflicts were reported particularly from the Green Revolution belts.
 4. While on the other side, there are life style changes in prosperous class.
Proliferation private costly vehicles, developed morlcets and spirit &
consumerism points to words the increasing.
5. The Ministry of Home Affairs of the Government of India studied the causes and
nature of agrarian tensions and admitted the socio-political implications of the
new agricultural strategy.The Report concluded that new agricultural strategy has
created widening gap between the relatively affluent farmers and the large body
of small holders and landless agricultural workers’.
6. P.C. Joshi has argued that conflict and discontent are inherent in the ‘outmoded
agrarian structure’. While such an agrarian structure provides the basic cause of
tension, the ‘proximate causes’ which have led to the eruption of ‘latent’
discontent into ‘manifest’ tension are located in the new agricultural strategy and
the Green Revolution.
7. The poor peasants, share-croppers and landless agricultural labourers have not
been able to share profitably in the general prosperity, which came in the wake of
the green revolution. In this context T.K. Oommen shows that “the green
revolution as such does not led to the welfare of the agrarian poor unless
substantial alterations in the prevalent socio-economic and political structure are
effected at the grass roots.”
8. Increased agricultural production has been visible mainly in areas like Punjab,
Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. In this fashion,
substantial areas in the country have not been benefitted by this agricultural
change.
9. Likewise a new class of capitalist farmers has emerged in the green revolution
belts.
10.Green revolution has profound impact on polities of the area. After initial years of
green revolution and increased production, the upper and middle peasantry
realized that to ensure their domination, and to ensure constant state support i.e
subsidies, they have to capture power.So institutionlisation of domination was
felt neccessary for example formation of lok dal by chaudhary charan singh. Paul
brass argues that it has led to ethnic friction between Jat Sikhs and non Jat Sikhs.
Which led to separation of Punjab and Haryana.

Therefore, green revolution has led to politicization of formers issues, it intensified

interstate conflict of
land water. It led to conspicuous consumption, declining sex ration and rise in crimes.
The recent drag
problem is also attributed to the rising income in patria chi cal societal structure in
green revolution belt

 Another important trend suggests that the agricultural production has increased
but the social index has not changed in the same proportion. For example, the
gender-ratio in those areas where agricultural prosperity has been achieved is still
unfavourable.
Conspicuous Consumption : In addition, when income mobility has taken place in these
areas, women are with drawn form production process. The process of domestication of
women can be witnessed hare. Where reproductive role is emphasized more. Utsa
patnik argues that increased income and proliferation of technology (ultrasound
machines) has led to targeted reproduction (male child). It has been reason for most
cases of domestic violence, abortion and women death.

However, despite these limitations the Green Revolution has undoubtedly paved the
way for faster
economic growth and corresponding social change.

New Green Revolution

In India now there is talk of new green revolution or second green revolution. This
discourse was initiated by former president A.RJ. Abdul Kalam and advocated that there
is need of green revolution .

The second green revolution will emphasis on

 New crops and non-traditional crops which can sell well in the international
market and there must be a large scale trode to these commodities in different
fields.
 It is also proposed that those states which have exhausted their capacities of
ground water like Maharastra, Punjab, Haryana they should try to have more
emphasis on change of crop pattern. It was suggested that Punjab should to
course grains, pulses.
 This new green revolution also envisages that there is introduction of new
technology in Indian agriculture. There should be more emphasis on Irrigation
patterns. The new desert area irrigation patterns and there should be in re note
rural areas, introduction of non-energy simple tools.

Yet new green revolution has not started in a pull scale but all over India in the rural
area, now there is latest technology employed by multinational corporations and they
have also introduced new forming techniques like contract forming.

New green revolution requires the money for investment In India the small formers do
not have the resources to invest in agriculture and related areas. In the first green
revolution the government was ready and it invested in large amount Gurpreet
Mahajan says there has to be a massive investment even now in agriculture. The small
peasant who constitute 25% of rural population and who have under their control more
than 30% of land must be provide which funds for new agriculture infrastructure.

In 2013-14 the growth rate of agriculture was 1.1% if this has to change positively then
it requires big ticket reforms. It requires massive investment from government in form
concessional rates and sometimes even free provision of infrastructure and input
Agrarian crisis in India has aggraurated becomes of new policies in the economic field
and area. They have to go for massive changes. Therefore, some radical measures have
to be taken for rural transformation night now.

This green revolution in follows old pattern then there will be problems. This would
create more in the
rural areas. Dipankar Gupta says that the rural areas one no larger rural they have
become urban areas. There are all facilities like mobile, small eateries, cyber cafe,
beauty parlor and repair shops. Gupta says right now in rural areas more than half
people work in non-agricultural activities. The world bank and asian development bank
has given their views that rural areas are in a positive to absorb people in non
agricultural activities.

In India mode of production in agriculture has change. On the one hand semi-feudalism
has been overcome and there are no land lords lift in villages .There people who are and
owners and they acting as land loads but they do not have sufficient resources to
sustain then. They do not have the control earlier they had So as a system this is so
longer existing. Now the market economy operates in rural areas. Rich People employ
wage labour.

Thus, this second green revolution must succeed for rural agrarian transformation and
modernization of
society .

Changing Modes of Production in Indian Agriculture

The introduction of new technology in agriculture has transformed the mode of
agricultural production. Resources other than land have assumed importance.
Resources such as tractors, mechanized ploughs, pump sets, power threshers and other
are acquired through the market Today even if one has not inherited land through the
traditional channel it is possible for one to join the class of landowners.

1. In the wake of changing mode of production the composition of the traditional

landowning class is changing in the country. Earlier, most of the landowners
inherited land from their ancestors. Land could not be purchased in the market
because the land market was not fully developed. But this situation has changed
now.
2. The restructuring of agrarian system has set in as a result of the land, the
reforms and the Green Revolution. In this fashion, a new class of farmers is
emerging consisting of persons with different skills and experiences. They no
longer belong to the traditional landowning upper castes. They are the people
who have retired from the civil and military services and have invested their
savings in agricultural farms. This is the story behind the emergence of Gentleman
Farmer.
 3. This group now attracts the people who are educated and wish to make
agriculture their vocation. The increased profitability of agriculture is the primary
reason behind it These agricultural farms are run like business firms with all
features of modern organizations. In this respect, there is a substantial difference
between the traditional agricultural system and the emerging system.
4. The emergence of capitalist farmers is another important development in
independent India. The question whether and to what extent capitalism has
penetrated Indian agriculture is still being debated. But the trend in agriculture as
in industry is clearly towards infusion of capitaL
5. A capitalist form of wage labour agrarian system has replaced the traditional
customary land relation. There is a clear transformation from the peasant family
farms to the commercial capitalist farms.
6. A powerful class of rich peasants, undoubtedly; existed even earlier but they
could not be characterized as capitalist farmers because there was no capitalist
penetration in agriculture as such. However, in the recent past, apart from the
land reforms, other forces are at work in agricultural sector.
7. Introduction of new technology along with several other schemes of agricultural
development have facilitated a small section of rich peasantry to emerge as
powerful commercial and capitalist farmers.
8. Extensive facilities and resources such as supply of high yielding variety of seeds,
fertilizers, and improved implements, irrigation as well as facilities of credit and
improved transport and communication- all have been fully utilized by these
farmers.
9. The capitalist farmer hires labourers for accomplishing her/his requirements.The
actual tillers of the soil are the wage labourers employed by the capitalist
farmers. The later is involved in agriculture only to appropriate profits from it
10.A surplus is, thus, generated in agricultural production that is reaching to the
market.

The size of the class of capitalist farmers is still small in the country today. But its
emergence and growth reveal a significant aspect of change in the agrarian social
structure. The emergence of this class has not only increased the efficiency and
productivity of agriculture, but also has helped industrial growth and development.
However, this trend has widened the between the rich and the poor farmers
inequalities between the top and the bottom layers of the agrarian classes have
accentuated leading to unrest in rural areas.

Some Studies on mode of productions in Indian agriculture

1. Ashok Rudra sees part capitalism in Indian agriculture. He argues that a capitalist
would always respond to onarlcet’s demand But Indian agriculture has stuck in
wheat nice system. So there is production for market but with convenience.
Further he argues that percentage of land used for cash crops is more while
percentage of family income coming from it is low. Therefore there is absence of
input out put rationalization, the spirit of capitalism is partial.The profits coming
 out of agriculture are not reinvested in agriculture always. Ritual spending, status
consolidation spending can be see, So, not totally capitalistic but part capitalistic.
2. Utsa Patnik argues that Indian agriculture is still in pre capitalistic phase. It is a
preparatory phase before capitalism.She argues that technology is available but
they don’t use it Family labour is used in are or other form instead of service of
skilled labour, farming community function as pressure groups only. They don’t
control power. Entire Indian economy is non-capitalist, but there are some islands
of pre-capitalism and among them few capitalist are there. So do not genaralise
that Indian is capitalistic.

Problems of Rural Labour, Bondage, Migration in India

Bondage can be conceptualized as a social condition when a person sells himself away’
to his employer on condition of specific economic privilege. It is a system of
institutionalized slavery where the labour does not have independence and freedom of
right to work. The service is rendered for debt or in lieu of the interest accruing to the
debt.

Bonded Labour
Labour which remains in bondage for a specific period for the debt incurred are called
bonded labour. The debtor agrees to mortgage his service or services of any or all
members of his familyfor a specified or unspecified period.

Two basic features

1. Indebtedness
2. Forced labour

Types of Bondage : National Commission on Rural Labour spelled out those four kinds
of bonded labour
practice present in India:

1. Inter-generational bondage
2. Loyalty bondage
3. Bondage through land allotment (attached)
4. Bondage of the distressed widows.

CAUSES OF BONDAGE: The main causes of origin, growth and perpetuation

indebtedness and bonded labour system are economic. Though the social and religious
factors too support the custom.

Economic factors

1. Extreme poverty of people

2. Inability of people to find work for livelihood
 3. Inadequate rise of land- holdings to rapport family
4. Lack of alternative small scale loan for the rural and urban poor
5. Natural calamities like drought flood etc
6. Meagre income from forest produce (tribes)
7. Inflation and constant rising price.

Social factors
Expenses on occasions like marriage, death, feast, birth of a child etc., leading to heavy
debt (R.S.Sharma) Caste based discrimination

1. Lack of concrete social welfare schemes to safeguard against hunger and illness
2. Non-compulsory and unequal educational system
3. Migration.

Religious factors :
References from religious texts are given and religious arguments are used to convince
the people of low castes that religion enjoins upon them to serve people of high castes.
Illiteracy ignorance, immaturity and lack of stability and professional training sustain
such attitude.

Broadly speaking it may be concluded that bondage originates mainly from economic
and social pressures.

1. Utsa Patnaik : Persistence of Feudalism in Indian agriculture is greatly responsible

for the continuity of bondage in the countryside. In rural sector feudalism is
persistent because traditional landlords do come from upper caste and hence
relationship between caste and agriculture is absolutely profound. Low castes
either work as tenants or share-croppers going for traditional method of contract
and low caste of untouchables who are landless in order to avoid distance
migration opt for bonded labour.
2. Ashok Rudra, Pranav Vardhan and Arvind S. Das : Bonded labour persists under
the disguise of attached labour in capitalist agriculturalist market More intensive
is the capitalist development highest is exploitation that results in consolidation
of bonded labour.
3. Shashi Kumar : When man migrates from village the women and children are
reduced into bonded
labour by the local landlords.
4. Lahiri : In West Bengal Baramasic contract system is a form of disguised bonded
labour. In this system the labourer is given some advance, free food, shelter to
work for the master throughout the year. Due to poverty borrowing continues so
is attachment with the family.
5. Hanumanth Rao : Bonded labour is a product of regular natural disaster, uneven
distribution of land in countryside, fragile ecology, intensive caste based
exploitation, perpetual poverty, lack of alternate source of livelihood.
 6. Jodhka : Bonded labour practice in the country is the product of the survivalist
necessity of the rural poor corresponding with the innovative saving techniques
identified by rural rich.
7. Due to Green Revolution the states like Punjab and Haryana received high rate of
migrant labour from poor states who got trapped in bondage.

Today’s Scenario – Magnitude of Bondage in India : Bonded labour system has been
enlisting in Indian Society among agricultural labourers in the name of beggar and ryots.
Today it has extended to workers working in brick kilns, bidi factories, stone quarries,
glass factories and in detergent, carpet, gem stones and many other factories.

1. The cultural environment of exploitation under which the practice of bonded

labour flourished witnessed all forms of exploitation and oppression ranging from
child labour to the sexual exploitation of bonded women.
2. Nadeem Hasnain in his study of Kolta bonded labour found that untouchables
were barred by custom from owning land It was further compounded by the
social ban on keeping or touching gold thus making him totally vulnerable to any
economic exigencies when a Kolta would be having nothing except his body which
becomes a ready object of mortgage.
3. Foundation and National Labour Institute in combined study of bonded labour in
1978 found out that around 2.6 Lakh of workers in India are either bonded
worker or are attached workers. It is based on survey of thousand villages
spreading in ten states.
4. National Commission on Rural Labour in a study found out that bonded labour is
largely used in agriculture sector, plantation sector. Child labours in bonded from
is greatly used in hazardous sectors.
5. Among many socio-economic disabilities the untouchables have been suffering
form their customary landlessness, the scheduled castes of today are the worst
victims of dept bondage.
6. Deccan Development Society found out in its study that 533 children and 786
adults are pushed into the state of bonded labour.
7. NHRC in a case brought before it found out in Jharkhand how a person was forced
to work for 20 years because of non-payment of Rs.2000.

Steps taken and Suggestions :

1. Constitution prohibits begar (forced labour) under Acticle 23.

2. Through Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1976 the Government tried to
tackle debt bondage head on.
3. NHRC has developed a core groups for the identification and rehabilitation of
bonded labour.
4. Centrally-sponsored scheme is launched for the abolition of bonded labour for
the provision of offering Rs.20000 to every bonded labourer rehabilitated.

This scheme has been revised in 2016.The quantum of financial assistance has been
increased from 20 thousand to1 Lakh rupees. While the most deprived and marginalized
like disabled female and children rescued from trafficking, sexual exploitation and
transgender will get Rs. 3 Lakhs. The special category comprising of Females and minors
who will now get Rs. 2 Lakhs.

One of the special features of the new scheme is that it aims ot address new forms of
bondage such as organized begging rings, forced prostitution and child labour for which
females, disabled and trans genders are mercilessly used by the powerful elements.

5. Different NGOs like Sahyog, Mahila Samakhya, Sankalp and Bachpan Bachao
Andolan are working in the area of the abolition of bonded labour.
6. The problem of bonded labour should be understood from the perspective of
larger social situation.
7. Various policies to eradicate it need to emphasise on poverty alleviation
measures.
8. Elimination of feudalistic ideology.
9. Intensive caste based inequality need to be checked.

Feminisation of Agriculture
Indian agriculture is facing contradictory situation. On one hand rural rich is doing
contract forming, employing new technology. While rural poor are migrating to cities in
search of letter job opportunities.

A regular migration of the small formers and agriculture labour to the urban areas or to
other activities
have led to tremendous pressure on rural women. They are forced to do agriculture on
their own with what ever possible means.Also the percentage of women is agricultural
labour has been on rise. This points to feministaion of agriculture in India.

It has positive as well as negative consequences for women. Lets see positive one first

1. Feminisation has helped women to be come independent and to take

independent decision
2. They have become responsible enough to go to the block officers or to the
panchayat executives for their grievance redressaL
3. They have also learnt skills of alternative employment.
4. Urvashi Jain in her study of kasaba area of Bihar found that they are engaged in
money types of activities.

They are rearing goats, chicken and sometimes also selling vegetables in the market
Nevertheless, It also affected them in negative ways.

1. Social cleavages and gender discrimination come into way of entrepreneurial

forming
2. Low level of skilling, know-low and absence of social capital / networks has led to
low level of production for them.
 3. Women are paid less as agriculture labouress then men. So it has led to
exploitation
4. Agriculture as informal orientation so women suffer from lacunas of informal
sector.Such as absence of social security, seasonality of work, low pay and
absence of gendered need such as crash facilities, much maternity benefits and
toilet facilities.

Thus feminization of agriculture do contributing to upliftment of women but still it has

not crossed the
mark of good business for women. Indian agriculture needs modernization along with
feminization to cater to women’s need of employment and business opportunities.

LABOUR MIGRATION
Labour migration is an important factor affecting the course of socio-economic
development in India. Accelerated movement of people originating mainly from the
rural and backward areas in search of employment has been one of the most important
features of the labour market scenario in India during the post-Independence period.

According to the 1991 Census, 226 million persons have changed their places of
residence within the country. Such large scale labour migration obviously has raised a
number of concerns in relation to the social and economic policy framework in India.
Concern has been expressed over the economic, social and political marginalization of
migrant workers, especially of those unskilled people moving from relatively deprived
and depressed areas in search of gainful employment and living.

Nature of Labour Migration :

1. As majority of the occupation in which migrant labourers are engaged do not

prefer women workers, most of migrants are males who migrate individually.
2. This is, however, not the case in certain occupations in which family migrations is
cheaper for the employer. Sugarcane is a case in point Brick kiln and construction
are other examples which attract family labour.
3. Majority of the migrants belong to the backward and scheduled castes as well as
scheduled tribes being either landless or too poor.
4. Labour migration is a complex phenomenon and encompasses different streams
which vaiy in duration, nature of origin and destination areas and characteristics
of migration process.
5. The nature of contemporary labour migration can be examined at various levels
depending on the degree and extent of vulnerability to which the migrant worker
is exposed.These levels are : migration for survival subsistence.
Magnitude of Migration :
Of the 226 million persons who changed places within the country as per the 1991
Census, only 17.3 million or 8.8 per cent persons are reported to have moved for
employment reasons. Several studies and reports on migration, however, have
indicated that the Census data suffers from several limitations while estimating labour
migration for employment The main limitation is that the data ignores or severely
underestimates short duration and seasonal/circular migrants. The extent of this under
reporting is very clearly brought out by the National Commission on Rural Labour
(1991). The Commission estimates more than 10 million circular migrants in the rural
areas alone.These include an estimated 4.5 million inter-State migrants and 6 million
intra-State migrants.

Main reasons for Labour migration :

1. Accelerated development of capitalist form of agriculture i.e. non-participation of

family labour among the rich and middle peasants and changes in frequencies of
cropping due to the adoption of advanced technology in agriculture,
2. Reduced demand for permanent labour due to mechanized farming and
marginalization of farmers and artisans in rural areas due to resource constraint
and compulsion to augment their earnings by seasonal labour also affect the
migration,
3. Other reason which cause the migration are failure of land reforms, Depletion of
resource base for tribes. High rates of population growth in the rural areas,
Increase in the proportion of landless labourers, and
4. Lack of adequate expansion of non-farm employment.

Condition of Migrant Labourers and there Exploitation :

1. The migrant workers are generally exploited They are made to work for long
hours and the wages paid to them are lower than the local labourers, in fact,
below the level of prescribed minimum wage.
2. Taking advantage of their illiteracy and poverty, middle-men practice exploitative
recruitment practices and in many cases, retain a major portion of their wages as
their own commission. Moreover, wages are adjusted only at the end of the
season and workers are paid some advance, which are not at all sufficient to meet
even the basic requirements.
3. The conditions of women labourers are far more unsatisfactory. Contrary to
provisions of equal Remuneration Act, women migrant labourers are invariably
paid lesser wages as compared to their male counterparts in many sectors.Sexual
exploitation of the women migrant labouerers especially the tribals is also a
matter of deep concern.
4. In addition, migrant workers do not have access to the public distribution system
or other municipal services. They are provided with free medical facilities.
5. Their non-inclusion in electoral rolls also deprives them of political patronage and
results in their extreme political marginalization.
 6. The employers and contractors also adopt exploitative practices against the
migrant labour. They employ various methods to circumvent the provisions of the
Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act (ISMW) framed by the Centre in 1979to
regulate the employment of inter-State migrant workers.The contractors inter-
alia, split establishment in such a way so that license is not required as envisaged
under the Act for employing more than 5 migrant workers.
7. The contractors also evade the provisions of the ISMW Act by registering migrant
labour with the local employment exchange and then contend that ISMW Act
does not apply.
8. A major shortcoming of the ISMW Act is that it does not apply to those migrants
who undertake migration on their own and also to long distance migration
whether voluntary or sponsored within the state boundaries.Thus, a significant
proportion of migrants are excluded from the purview of the Act.
9. The effective implementation of the ISMW Act hinges on its Section 20, which
provides for appointment of inspectors to inspect whether provisions of this Act,
in relation to payment of wages, conditions of service and facilities are being
complied with. But none of the State governments have evolved any institutional
modalities for carrying out inspections outside States for enforcement of the Act.

Some interesting insights on migration provided by Census of India 2001

1. During the reporting period 30% reported as migrants by place of birth.

2. During the last decade (1991-2001), the number of migrants in India (excluding J
& K) rose by 32.9%, the total number of migrants by place of last residence in
India (excluding J & k) grew by 34.7% during1991- 2001.
3. High growth (53.6%) among inter-state migrants was also observed
4. Total migrants by last residence (0-9 yrs.) accounted to 98.3 million.
5. 43.8% moved due to marriage, 21.0% moved with their households, 14.7%
migrated due to work, 6.7% moved after their birth, 3% for educational purpose,
1.2% for business and 9.7%specified other reasons.
6. About 42.4 million migrants out of total 65.4 million female migrants cited
marriage as the reason for migration.Among males the most important reason for
migration was ‘Work/Employment’,12.3 million out of 32.8 million total male
migrants migrated due to this reason.
7. During the decade, out of the urban growth of 30.3 per cent, 6.6 per cent is
accounted for by migration to urban areas.
8. If one takes away those migrants who moved due to marriage, the total number
of migrants falls from 98.3 million to 55.2 million. Total number of migrants
among males and females were 32.2 million and 22.9 million respectively.
9. Migration streams (during the last decade)
 Rural to rural migration within the country: 53.3 million
 Rural to urban migration: 20.5 million
 Urban to rural migration: 6.2 million
 Urban to urban migration:14.3 million.
 10.Uttar Pradesh (2.6 million) and Bihar (-1.7 million) were the two states with
largest number of net migrants migrating out of the state.
11.The total number of inter-state migrants was 42.3 million and those who were
born abroad account for 6.1 million. About 97% of these migrants by last
residence were from the eight neighboring countries (including Afghanistan).

Major Problems Encountered By Migrant Labourers :

Some major problems encountered by the migrants in their areas of employment
include,

1. Premature termination of job contracts,

2. Hanging the clauses of contract to the disadvantage of the workers,
3. Delay in making payments,
4. Violation of minimum wage standards,
5. Forced over-time work without returns,
6. In the case of most intra-state and inter-state unskilled and semiskilled migrants,
migrant labourers run high risks of exploitation for they are exposed to large
uncertainties and lack access to information and knowledge. Thus making it very
difficult for them to switch jobs in case of dissatisfaction with the current
employer.
7. Because of their optionless situation, these labourers lack bargaining power and
thereby fail to negotiate reasonable pay scales and fair working conditions with
the contractors.
8. Most migrants live in open spaces; make shift shelters or illegal settlements,
which lack the basic infrastructure and access to civic amenities. They have no
local ration which can provide them their food at subsidized rates through the
Public Distribution system.
9. They are highly prone to occupational health hazards and vulnerable to epidemics
including HIV/AIDS.
10.Since the migrants are mobile, their children have no creche facilities or access to
schooling. They do not come under the purview of either the local government or
the NGO Programmes for they do not belong to that particular region. So citing
the problem of monitoring, most agencies leave them outside the scope of
development intervention.
11.In India, migrant labours are largely found in the developed states. The traditional
migrants coming from underdeveloped regions of the country are the most
marginalized sections of society, namely the Tribals and the Scheduled
Castes.These migrants are entirely without legal protection or social security.
They are “invisible”,and are not acknowledged They are denied access even to
basic amenities in most of the cases. They have no identity in the places where
they live and no voice in the places they have left behind
12.Migration offers a very fertile ground for traffickers. In India, migrants who leave
their homes in search for better employment opportunities and marital
prospects, fall easy preys to traffickers for want of adequate information.
Alongside cross-border trafficking, internal trafficking of women, children and
 men for purpose of sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, bonded labour and
indentured servitude too is widespread.

COOPERATIVES
The modern cooperative movementin India was started in1904 with the enactment of
cooperative societies act, having the major objective to free of the farmers from the
clutches of zamindars and money lenders from being exploited and oppressed Initially it
was limited to agricultural credit only but slowly its area of action was elongated to
cover marketing, consumers, agriculture, bank and housing.

Characteristically modern cooperative is organized on certain principles. Sociologically

one of the important principles is: equality among members and democratic rule in
management, eventually it establishes equality on one side and removes exploitation on
the others.

The Simple meaning of cooperative is working together of the people associatively

under common interests to achieve some specific goal. In India it was planned to
achieve these goats through cooperative societies. It could be seen in two ways :

1. Cooperation between individual and cooperative institution.

2. Cooperation between collectivity and cooperative institutions in India,

Cooperatives work at the following levels:

1. Cooperative credit society- for credit purposes;

2. Cooperative agriculture society – for agricultural needs;
3. Industrial cooperative society – small and cottage industry/marketing;
4. Consumer Cooperative society – like Milk and milk products
5. Housing cooperative society
6. Multi-purpose tribal cooperative society- for tribal’s vivid needs.

Emergence of cooperatives in India : Background

1. Though, in India, the emergence of cooperative is traced from 1904 and it was
functional in some areas, but a consensus could not have developed for the same
owing to a low level of awareness among people towards it Leaders like Gandhi
and Nehru accompanied by the socialist and communist leaders advocated
cooperative farming to eradicate agrarian inequality and exploitation and to
increase agricultural production at low cost along with bringing awareness among
the people.
2. It was believed the cooperative was an important element (source) to bring
institutional change through land reforms. In this reference, in 1949, the congress
Agricultural Reformation Committee (Kumarappa Committee) suggested that the
states should be given rights to implement different cooperatives according to
different levels of farming. It was also found Nehru was ardent supporter to it and
 he was greatly in favour of Chinese Model the positive consequences of which
were boastfully presented.
3. To ascertain the reality, two Indian delegates, one of planning commission and
other of Food and Agriculture Ministry, were sent to China. Both reached to
almost same conclusion and favoured heavily to cooperative farming. Therefore,
it was estimated that agri production could be increased by 25.35% through it.

Nagpur convention, 1959 (AICC) also proposed that nature of farming in future should
be cooperative.

Suggestions

1. Establishment of Cooperative Societies

2. Time – Duration:Nation-wide in the next three years
3. Removal of property/Land-owning class through compulsion, if required

(It was vehemently opposed, Consequently Nehru deleted the element of

compulsion).Workers would be trained to request and make people understand the
meaning of cooperative farming and to
agree to it But it failed to operate properly. Furthermore, cooperative farming was seen
at two levels:

1. At the Initiation of Landowners: Objective was to escape land-reforms and to get

the maximum benefit provided by, state. It would demoralize small farmers.
2. In the form of Pilot project. It was applied to infertile land distributed among
landless. The plan of action was to make it fertile before cultivation. But being
highly cost-ridden it also failed.

Service Cooperatives :
To avail farmers different agriculture based services so that they could enhance
productivity individual
issues were included.

Social Consequences of Credit System :

In 1951-52 – Total Credit Rs. 23 Crore
In 1960-61 – Total Credit Rs. 2 billion
In 1992-93 – Total Credit Rs. 49 billion

1. But most of the benefits went in the hands of big landowners Daniel Thorner, T.K.
Oommen and Surinder Jodhka have corroborated it in their studies.
2. Wolfe who, was fully aware of the demerit of cooperative movement, instead he
commented in the annual note of World Bank that cooperatives have benefited
millions of farmers in India and without it rural India can not be properly imagined
and portrayed.
 3. It has improved upon all socio-cultural-eco-politico aspects of farmers life and
they have oriented towards educational mobility.

Cooperatives and Caste in Maharashtra : A case study (B.S. Baviskar)

1. Cooperatives in Sugar Mills : 28 Mills in Ahmednagar alone there are 8

cooperative mills under his study.
2. Established in 1953 and started operating in 1955-56 which ‘he named ‘Kisan’

Conclusion : Kisan has played an important role in the transformation of social and
economic life in the nearby areas. In this Baviskar proves that among different
examples, the sugar mills of Maharashtra have been excellent examples in cooperatives.
They have not only shown different dimensions of success but also have paved the way
to abolish exploitation and oppression in the concerned area. It has been phenomenal
in creating a world view among people regarding cooperatives.

Anand Model :
Another successful example of cooperatives in Gujrat’s Kaira (Khera) districts Anand’
milk producers initiated with 250 litres milk.

Important Leaders : Gandhian Tribhuvan Das Patel; Vergese Kurien.

The Union started with 2 village cooperative institutions and 100 members. In 1995,
total number of
institutions rose to 954 and membership – 5 lakh 37 thousand Milk production
increased from 250 per litres day to 10 lakh liters per day and today it is at the level 10
million liters/day. The surplus is used for the production of milk powder, butter, cheese,
etc. for which the union used the term AMUL, which left behind many big companies
like Nestle and Glaxo.

Social Consequences :

1. Enhancement of life-style of villagers especially of poor farmers – 50% of their

total income comes from Dairy.
2. Some part of cooperatives income – for civic amenities and schools etc.
3. Establishment of democratic functioning – so no discrimination.
4. No discrimination on the basis of caste, class, sea, religion.
5. Its success incited in then PM Lib, Shastri to appeal the people to adopt Anand
ModeL On his initiative, NDDB National Dairy Development Board was established
in 1965.
6. As study done by World Bank Evaluation Department of ‘Operation White Flood’
(Wilfred Kaller and Nalini Kumar) reveals a great success of Anand Model. The
positive Consequences of which are spread almost all parts of the country. Its
great success is seen in women’s empowerment and children’s (especially female)
 education. With the help of SEWA, nearly 6000 women dairy cooperative
committees have been set up.

Anand Model : Operating also for fruits, vegetables oil production, salt production
etc.NDDB’s ‘Dhara’ brand is equally famous like AMUL. Inspired by its success, people
(experts) from many developed countries come here to study, which is a great
achievement of India.

Evolution of Cooperative in India: An article by Daniel Thorner

1. The First Plan approached the issue more judiciously and recommended that
small and medium farms in particular should be encouraged and assisted to group
themselves into cooperative farming societies. The Plan did not talk of any
enforcing powers to the state, thangh it did envisage some amount of compulsion
when it suggested that if a majority of the owners and occupancy tenants in a
village, owning at least half the land of the village, then their decision should be
binding on the village as a whole.
2. The early planners had hoped that the village panchayat activated by motivated
party workers and aided by the trained workers of the newly launched
Community Development programme (in October 1952) would not only help
implement rural development projects but would help bring about critical
institutional changes in Indian agriculture, for example by assisting in the
implementation of land reforms, by organizing voluntary labour for community
work and by setting up of cooperatives. Further, there was a high and growing
level of expectation, in the initial years, regarding how much such institutional
changes, particularly cooperativization, would substitute for investment outlay in
agriculture, in achieving the planned targets of rapid increases in agricultural
production.
3. The Second Plan reflected this expectation by declaring that ‘the main task during
the Second Five-Year Plan is to take such essential steps as it will provide sound
foundations for the development of cooperatives so that over a period often
years or so, a substantial proportion of agricultural lands are cultivated on
cooperatives lines. However, even the ambitious plan of having a ‘substantial’
proportion of agricultural lands under cooperatives within ten years soon
appeared to be too modest once exaggerated reports started pouring in of the
dramatic increases in agricultural output achieved by China through measures
such as cooperativization. (It was many years later, after Mao’s death in 1976,
that this myth was destroyed By one estimate, China agricultural growth rate
between 1954 and 1974 was only 2 per cent, which was actually lower than
India’s which was 2.5 per cent).
4. In the middle of 1956 two Indian delegations, (one of the Planning Commission,
the other of the Union Ministry of Food and Agriculture), consisting of leaders of
the cooperatives movement in India, members of parliament, bureaucrats
involved with cooperatives, technical experts and planners, were sent to China to
study how they organized their cooperatives and achieved such rapid increases in
agricultural output Underlying these visits was the feeling that the targets of
 agricultural growth envisaged by the Second Plan were inadequate and required
an upward revision and the Chinese experience could show how these targets
could be achieved without significant increases in outlay.
5. The two delegations arrived at quite similar conclusions. It was reported that
China had achieved remarkable increase in food grains production and extension
of the agricultural infrastructure through cooperativization. They both
recommended a bold programme of extending cooperative farming in India.
Jawaharlal Nehru, who was deeply committed to the idea of cooperativization,
started putting pressure on the states to emulate the Chinese example and
commit to higher food production on the basis of institutional changes in
agriculture, i.e., without demanding additional funds for investment in
agriculture. The National Development Council and the AICC now set targets even
higher than the one envisaged by the Second Plan, proposing that in the next five
years agricultural production be increased by 25 to 35 per cent if not more,
mainly by bringing about major institutional changes in agriculture such as
cooperativization. The states, however, resisted any large-scale plan for
cooperativization, agreeing only to experiments in cooperative farming and that
too if they remained strictly voluntary.
6. The Congress under Nehru’s persuasion continued to mount pressure in favour of
an agricultural strategy based critically on institutional change.
7. The Third Plan, in sharp contrast to the Second reflected the mellowed position
regarding cooperativization and took a very pragmatic and cautious approach. As
regards cooperative farming, it accepted a modest target of setting up ten pilot
projects per district At the same time it put in the caveat that ‘cooperation in
credit, marketing, distribution and processing, the growth of rural industry, and
the fulfilment of the objectives of land reform. This sounded like a wishful
platitude not a plan of action.

Structure and Significance of Co-operatives

The cooperative structure in India consists of different constituents.At the bottom of
this structure are the primary societies which render various types of services. Of this
large number about 80% is concerned with agriculture. Most of these societies, about
60% deal with credit only.Thus a large majority of primary societies are related to
agriculture and credit They perform various functions such things as credit, irrigation,
marketing, transports etc. These are generally divided into two groups:

1. Credit societies, and

2. Non-credit societies.

Each of these two sub-groups is further split up into sub groups :

1. Agricultural societies, and

2. Non-agricultural societies.

Agricultural societies (both credit and non-credit are found in urban areas. For
supervision and financial assistance to cooperative credit societies there are central
banks and state cooperative banks. The central banks supervise the functioning of the
primary societies of a district or part of a district and offer financial assistance to them.
Their capital is drawn from public deposit, share capitals and loans from other sources.
Because of variety of sources from which these banks can draw money, they act as a link
between cooperative societies and the money market They function as balancing
centers by diverting funds of surplus societies to the needy societies; they also perform
ordinary banking functions also.

At the top of the cooperative credit are the state cooperative banks, at the state level
known as the apex bank. It controls the working of central banks and provides finance
to them. It also acts as the link between Reserve Bank of India from which it borrows
and the central banks and primary societies. It directs the cooperative movement in the
state. Its capital comes from share capital, public, deposits and loans and advances from
the state and Reserve Bank of India. The National Cooperative Union of India is the apex
organization promoting the cooperative movement in the country.

All the above mentioned institutions are concerned with short and medium term credit
of people. Long term loans are given by Land Development banks, which have a unitary
structure having branches at different places. These banks obtain their funds from share
capital, reserves, deposits, issue of bonds and debentures. However, the major part of
their resources is drawn from the floating of ordinary debentures in the market.

The investors in these debentures are LIC, commercial banks, cooperative banks, central
and state
governments and Reserve Bank of India, Cooperation in a vast country like India is of
great significance because:

1. It is an organization for the poor, illiterate and unskilled people.

2. It is an institution of natural help and sharing.
3. It softens the class conflicts and reduces the social cleavages.
4. It reduces the bureaucratic evils and follies of political functions.
5. It overcomes the constraints of agricultural development
6. It creates conducive environment for small and cottage industries.

Limitations of cooperativization
Given the policy stalemate reached, it is not surprising that the progress that the
cooperative movement in India, by and large, fell far short of the goals set by its early
proponents. Most of the weakness that Daniel Thorner, the noted economist, had
observed during his survey of 117 of the ‘best’ cooperatives all over India between
December 1958 and May 1959 remained largely true in the years to come.

As for joint farming, two types of cooperatives were observed :

1. First, there were those that were formed essentially to evade to land reforms and
access incentives offered by the state. Typically, these cooperatives were formed
by well-to-do, influential families. Forming a cooperative helped evade the ceiling
 laws or tenancy laws. The influential members got the lands tilled by the bogus
members who were essentially engaged as wage labour or tenants. Moreover,
forming these bogus cooperatives enabled the influential families to take
advantage of the substantial financial assistance offered by the state in the form
of a subsidy, as well as get priority for acquiring scarce agricultural inputs like
fertilizers, improved seeds and even tractors, etc.
2. Second these were the state-sponsored cooperative farms in the form of pilot
projects, where generally poor, previously uncultivated land was made available
to the landless, Harijans, displaced persons and such underprivileged groups. The
poor quality of land lack of proper irrigation facility, etc., and the fact that these
farms were run like government-sponsored projects rather than genuine,
motivated joint efforts of the cultivators led them to be generally expensive
unsuccessful experiments.
3. In any case, the hope that the service cooperatives would facilitate the transition
to cooperative farming was completely belied Cooperative farming had spread to
negligible levels beyond the government projects and the bogus cooperatives.
4. The service cooperatives not only reflected the iniquitous structure of the Indian
countryside but also tended to reinforce it Typically, the leadership of the
cooperatives, i.e., its president and treasurer, consisted of the leading family or
families of the village which not only owned a great deal of land also controlled
trade and money lending.These well-to-do families, the’big people’ or the ‘all in
alls’ of the village were thus able to corner for themselves scarce agricultural
inputs, including credit In fact, quite often, low interest credit made available
through cooperative rural banks was used by such families for non-agricultural
business, consumption and even money lending.
5. It was a case of public subsidy being used by a non-target group for private
investment. These institutions were taken over by the dominant section in the
village, which used them to further buttress their economic and political
influence.
6. The village poor got little out of these institutions in the early years. An example
at hand is the constant refusal to implement the elaborate recommendation
made by the Reserve Bank of India in 1954 that rural credit cooperatives were to
give credit to the cultivator as the producer of a crop and not as the owner of
land This refusal of the cooperatives to issue ‘crop loans’ or loans in anticipation
of the crop being produced and their insisting on credit being given on land as
security, meant that the landless were essentially excluded from this scheme.In
1969, The Reserve Bank observed that tenant cultivators, agricultural labourers
and ‘others’ secured only 4 to 6 per cent of the total credit disbursed The Report
of theAll-India Credit Review Committee, 1969, and the Interim Reporton Credit
Services for Small and Marginal Farmers produced by the National Commission on
Agriculture,1971, confirmed the virtual exclusion of the landless and added that
the small and marginal farms were also ata considerable disadvantage vis-a-vis
die bigger cultivators in accessing credit from the cooperatives and even from the
nationalized banks.
7. A common shortcoming of the cooperatives movement was that instead of
promoting people’s participation it soon became like a huge overstaffed
government department with officials, clerks, inspectors, and the like, replicated
at the block, district, and state levels. A large bureaucracy, generally not in
sympathy with the principles of the cooperatives movement and quite given to
being influenced by local vested interests, instead of becoming the instrument for
promoting cooperatives, typically become a hindrance.
8. Yet, over time, the service cooperatives, particularly the credit cooperatives,
performed a critical role in Indian agriculture. The Primary Agricultural Credit
Societies (PACS), which were village level cooperative societies performed better.
9. The cooperative credit societies, however, suffered from a major drawback, that
of failure to repay loans and, consequently, a very large percentage of overdues.
Between 1960 and 1970, overdue of the primary societies rose from 20 to 38 per
cent of the credit disbursed The situation continued to deteriorate with the all
India average of overdue. Rising to 45 per cent in the mid-seventies and many
provinces reaching totally unviable figures, like 77 per cent in Bihar. Quite
significantly, it has been observed that the defaulters were not necessarily the
poor and small farmers but more often the well-to-do ones. With the growing
political and economic clout of the well-to-do peasant, the problem of overdues
had reached dangerous proportions, affecting the viability and growth rate of
rural credit institutions. Populist measures like the decision of V.P. Singh’s
National front government in 1990 to write-off all rural debts up to Rs 10,000 not
only put a heavy burden on the national exchequer but further eroded the
viability of rural credit institutions.
10.Service cooperatives had started to play a very important role in rural India. Their
role in making available a much increased amount of cheap credit to a wider
section of the peasantry was critical. They not only helped in bringing improved
seeds, modern implements, cheap fertilizers, etc., to the peasants, they also
provided them with knowledge of how to access them.And, in many areas they
also helped to market their produce. In fact, in many ways they provided a
necessary condition for the success of the Green Revolution strategy launched in
the late sixties, which was based on intensive use of modern inputs in agriculture.
11.A study done by the World Bank of Operation Flood details how the effort to
replicate the Anand Pattern’ paid rich dividends. A brief summary of the finding of
this study how the complex multi-pronged, similar to those achieved in Gujarat,
were now spread to other parts of the country.
12.The obvious impact of Operation Flood was the considerable increase in milk
supply and consequent increase in income of the milk producers, particularly the
poor. While national milk production grew at 0.7 per cent annum till 1969. it grew
at more than 4 per cent annually since the inception of Operation Flood Further,
village level enquiries showed that dairying was increasingly becoming an
important activity of the farmer and in some cases becoming the main source of
income, particularly among the poor. It was estimated that 60 per cent of the
beneficiaries were marginal or small farmers and landless, and the extremely
poor and needy (destitute, widows, landless, and near landless) in certain
 “spearhead” villages (was) unusually noteworthy. Milk cooperatives thus proved
to be a significant anti-poverty measure.
13.In this connection, the Work!Bank report highlighted an important lesson learnt
from Operation Flood a lesson with major politico-economic implications. The
‘lesson’ was that ‘by focusing a project on a predominant activity of the poor,
“self-selection” is likely to result in a major portion of the beneficiaries being
poor’ thus reaching ‘target’ groups which generally prove ‘elusive to reach in
practice’. Further, it may be added that the Anand type milk cooperatives reached
the poor irrespective of caste, religion or gender, without targeting any of these
groups specifically.Similar objectives were met by the Employment Guarantee
Scheme first launched in rural Maharashtra in the mid-seventies, followed by a
few other states includingAndhra Pradesh.The chief beneficiaries of this scheme
were the landless who were predominantly from among theScheduled Castes or
Scheduled Tribes, i.e., they got ‘self-selected’ though the scheme did not
exclusively target these groups. Such programmes had the important advantage
of reaching certain deprived section without exclusively targeting them. This
prevented an almost inevitable opposition or even a backlash among the groups
excluded which has so often been witnessed in scheme in India as well as in other
countries, such as the US, where benefits were sought to be given exclusively to a
particular community or group.
14.As in the case of Anand the impact of milk cooperatives and Operation Flood
went way beyond just increase in milk supply and incomes. As the World Bank
study reported A by-product impact of Operation Flood and the accompanying
dairy expansion has been the establishment of an indigenous dairy equipment
manufacturing industry (only 7 per cent of dairy equipment is now imported) and
an impressive body of indigenous expertise that included animal nutrition, animal
health, artificial insemination, management information system, dairy
engineering, food technology and the like. The indigenization of the infrastructure
and technology and the training of rural labour for performing a wide range of
technical functions is said to have considerably lower costs, making it possible to
procure and account for minute quantities of milk brought in by the producers,
without raising costs to an unviable level.
15.Operation Flood spread and even intensified the impact of the milk cooperatives
on women and children and on education. Realizing the potential of empowering
women through this movement, Operation Flood in cooperation with NGOs like
SEWA (Self-Employed Women s Association) established about 6,000 women
dairy cooperative societies (WDCS) where only women were member and the
management committees also were constituted exclusively of women. These
cooperatives were seen to be generally more efficiently run than the male-
dominated cooperatives. They gave women a greater control over their lives
through the milk income accruing to them and also enabled them to participate in
decision-making outside their homes, giving full play to their managerial and
leadership potential Further, field level observation showed that the milk income
in the poorer villages often made it possible for children to attend school while in
better off villages it contributed to children staying in school longer, that is, it
 reduced the dropout rate. In still wealthier villages, where all children went to
school a part of the earning of the cooperative was used to improve the facilities
in the school The field surveys also confirmed that increased school attendance
for girls was perceived as a very common effect of the dairy cooperative societies.
Greater family income and the women involved in dairying being able to stay at
home instead of going out for wage labour relieved children from having to earn a
wage or look after household chores. Instead, they attended school.
16.The spread of the ‘Anand Pattern’ was not to be limited to milk. Cooperatives for
fruits and vegetable producers, oilseeds cultivators, small-scale salt makers and
tree growers were started at the initiative of the NDDB. Again the Kaira Union
provided the technology as well as the trained personnel to help this process.
Often the resistance from vested interests, particularly the powerful oilseeds
traders, was vicious. In some regions of the country, the NDDB team which tried
to make the initial moves towards setting up cooperatives was threatened with
physical violence and there were cases where workers died in ‘mysterious’
circumstances. Yet, the movement has progressed In many parts of the country
cooperative of fruits and vegetables are beginning to be as common as milk
outlets.The ‘Dhara’ brand of vegetable oils, a child of the NDDB effort, is
beginning to represent in the area of vegetable oils what ‘Amul does in the area
of milk and milk products.

CONCLUSION
This has been one of the major achievements of post-independence India.The search for
cooperatives led to Indian delegations going to China in the mid-fifties; today scores of
countries send delegations to India to study and learn from the Anand experience.An
indication of the impact this experiment had at the grassroots level was the statement
made by a poor farmer in a village near Anand in 1985, ‘Gujarat is fortunate to have one
Kurien; if only God would give one Kurien to every state, many of India’s problems
would be solved.’ This poor Gujarat peasant who in his personalized way trying to
explain to us the magnitude of the success of this experiment with reference to Kurien,
a Syrian Christian from Kerala, will surely feel out of tune with the Hindu communal
upsurge his state witnessed in early 1999, where Christians were hounded and attacked
their religion presumably making them anti-National!
 Industrialization and Urbanisation in India
Evolution of Modern Industry in India
Industrialization refers to the emergence of machine production, based on the use of
inanimate
power resources like steam or electricity. In most standard western textbook of
sociology we learn that in even the most advanced of traditional civilizations, most
people were engaged in working on the land The relatively low level of technological
development did not permit more than a small minority to be freed from the chores of
agricultural production. By contrast, a prime feature of industrial societies today is
that a large majority of the employed population work in factories, offices or shops
rather than agriculture. Over 90 per cent of people in the industrialized societies live
in towns and cities, where most jobs are to be found and new job opportunities are
created Not surprisingly, therefore, we usually associate urbanization with
industrialization. They often do occur together but not always so. For instance in
Britain, the first society to undergo industrialization, was also the earliest to move
from being rural to a predominantly urban country.

Many of the great works of sociology were written at a time when industrialization was
new and machinery was assuming great importance. Thinkers like Karl Marx, Max
Weber and Emile Durkheim associated a number of social features with industry, such
as urbanization, the loss of face-to-face relationships that were found in rural areas
where people worked on their own farms or for a landlord they knew and their
substitution by anonymous professional relationships in modern factories and
workplaces. Industrialization involves a detailed division of labour. People often do
not see the end result of their work because they are producing only one small part of
a product. The work is often repetitive and exhausting. Yet, even this is better than
having no work at all i.e., being unemployed Marx called this situation alienation,
when people do not enjoy work, and see it as something they have to do only in order
to survive, and even that survival depends on whether the technology has room for
any human labour.

1. Industrialization leads to greater equality, at least in some spheres. For

example, caste distinctions do not matter any more on trains, buses or in cyber
cafes. On the other hand older forms of discrimination may persist even in new
factory or workplace settings. And even as social inequalities are reducing;
economic or income inequality is growing in the world Often social inequality and
income inequality overlap, for example, in the domination of upper caste men in
well-paying professions like medicine, law or journalism. Women often get paid
less than men for similar work.
2. While the early sociologists saw industrialization as both positive and negative,
by the mid 20th century, under the influence of modernization theory,
industrialization came to be seen as inevitable and positive. Modernization
theory argues that societies are at different stages on the road to modernization,
 but they are all heading in the same direction. Modern society, for these
theorists, is represented by the West.

EVOLUTION OF MODERN INDUSTRY IN INDIA

1. The presence of industries in India can be traced back to the Mauryan period and
Mughal rule. Where there were large number of ‘karkhanas’ and artisan based
industries.
2. But Britisher’s tariff policy and economic ruin of handicrafts led to de-
industrialisation and reverse migration to villages, which continued for a long
time.
3. In the wake of revolt of 1857, increased need of communication networks was
felt and hence railways as an industry was given an impetus. Simultaneously the
growth of Plantation industry-coffee and tea was witnessed.
4. The naval blockade by Germany during First World War also forced Britishers for
the industrialization in India for routine administrative purposes. Hence the
period after first world war saw diversification of Indian Industries in the field of
paper industry, sugar, matchmaking, iron, coal, metallurgical industry etc.
5. After 1947, India embarked on the journey of nation-building. Due to long
gestation period and requirement of capital state-led industrialization was
pursued This model is also known as Nehru-Mahalanobis modeL It was felt that a
trickle down effect would be achieved Capital intensive industries would be in
public sector, would bring private industries in the FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer
goos) Sector.
6. But due to inefficiencies of public sector, dystunction of bureaucracy and high
inflation in the wake of wars fought by India, very low growth rate was achieved
and eventually in 1991, Mahalanobis model was dropped when India liberalized
its economy.
7. Post-liberalization, Indian industry, especially tertiary sector, has performed in
excellence that promoted MNCs to grow in number and size.
 In India the impact of British industrialization led to deindustrialization in some
sectors. And decline of old urban centres.Just as manufacturing boomed in
Britain, traditional exports of cotton and silk manufactures from India declined
in the face of Manchester competition. This period also saw further decline of
cities such as Surat and Masulipattnam while Bombay and Madras grew. When
the British took over Indian states, towns like Thanjavur, Dhaka and Murshidabad
lost their courts and therefore, some of their artisans and court entry. From the
end of the 19th century, with the installation of mechanized factory industries,
some towns became much more heavily populated.
 The experience of industrialization in India is in many ways similar to the
western model and in many ways different Comparative analysis of different
countries suggests that there is no standard model of industrial capitalism. Let us
start with one point of difference, relating to what kind of work people are doing.
In developed countries, the majority of people are in the services sector, followed
by industryand less than10% are in agriculture (ILO figures). In India, in 1999-
 2000, nearly 60% were employed in the primary sector (agriculture and
mining),17% in the secondary sector (manufacturing, construction and utilities),
and 23% in the tertiary sector (trade, transport, financial services etc.) However, if
we look at the contribution of these sectors to economic growth, the share of
agriculture has declined sharply, and services contribute approximately half. This
is a very serious situation because it means that the sector where the maximum
people are employed is not able to generate much income for them.

Industrialization in the Early Years of Indian Independence.

1. The first modern industries in India were cotton, jute, coal mines and railways.
At independence, the government took over the ‘commanding heights of the
economy/ This involved defence, transport and communication, power, mining
and other projects, which only government had the power to do, and which was
necessary for private industry to flourish.
2. In India’s mixed economy policy, some sectors were reserved for government,
while others were open to the private sector. But within that, the government
tried to ensure, through it’s licensing policy, that industries were spread over
different regions.
3. Before independence, industries were located mainly in the port cities like
Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta. But since then, we see that places like Baroda,
Coimbatore, Bangalore, Pune, Faridabad and Rajkot have become important
industrial centres. The government also tried to encourage the small-scale sector
through special incentives and assistance. Many items like paper and wood
products, stationery glass and ceramics were reserved for the small-scale sector
in1991; large-scale industry employed only 28 per cent of the total workforce
engaged in manufacture, while the small-scale and traditional industry employed
72 per cent.

Globalization, Liberalization privatisation and Change in Indian Industry

1. Since the 1990s, however, the government has followed a policy of

liberalization. Private companies, especially foreign firms, are encouraged to
invest in sectors earlier reserved for the government, including telecom, civil
aviation, power etc. Licenses are no longer required to open industries. Foreign
products are now easily available in Indian shops.
2. As a result of liberalization, many Indian companies have been bought over by
multinationals. At the same time some Indian companies are becoming
multinational companies. An instance of the first is when. Parle drinks were
bought by Coca Cola. Parle’s annual turnover was Rs. 250 crores, while Coca
Cola’s advertising budget was Rs. 400 crores. This level of advertising has
naturally increased the consumption of coke across India replacing many
traditional drinks. The next major area of liberalization may be in retaiL
3. The government is trying to sell its share in several public sector companies, a
process which is known as disinvestment Many government workers are scared
 that after disinvestment, they will lose their jobs. In Modern Foods, which was
set up by the government to make healthy bread available at cheap prices, and
which was the first company to be privatized 60% of the workers were forced to
retire in the first five years.
4. More and more companies are reducing the number of permanent employees
and outsourcing their work to smaller companies or even to homes. For
multinational companies, this outsourcing is done across the globe, with
developing countries like India providing cheap labour. Because small
companies have to compete for orders from the big companies, they keep
wages low and working conditions are often poor. It is more difficult for trade
unions to organize in smaller firms. Almost all companies, even government
ones, now practice some form of outsourcing and contracting. But the trend is
especially visible in the private sector.

To summarize, India is still largely an agricultural country. The service i.e. sector-shops,
banks, the IT industry, hotels and other services are employing more people and the
urban middle class is growing, along with urban middle class values like those we see in
television serials and films. But we also see that very few people in India have access to
secure jobs, with even the small number in regular salaried employment becoming
more insecure due to the rise in contract labour. So far, employment by the government
was a major avenue for increasing the well-being of the population but now even that is
coming down. Some economists debate this, but liberalization and privatization
worldwide appear to be associated with rising income inequality.

At the same time as secure employment in large industry is declining the government is
embarking on a policy of land acquisition for industry. These industries do not
necessarily provide employment to the people of the surrounding are as, but they cause
major pollution. Many farmers ,especially Adivasis, who constitute approximately 40%
of those displaced are protesting at the low rates of compensation and the fact that
they will be forced to become casual labour living and working on the footpaths of
India’s big cities.

SOCIO CULTURAL IMPLICATIONS OF INDUSTRIALIZATION IN INDIA

Industrialization got under way in India in the last quarter of the nineteenth and first
half of the twentieth century. Cities grew around the new industries. Before
industrialization, we had :

1. Agrarian less-monetized economy,

2. A level of technology where the domestic unit was also the unit of economic
exchange,
3. A non-differentiation of occupations between father and son and between
brothers and brothers, and
4. A value system where authority of the elders and the sanctity of tradition were
both supported as against the criterion of ‘rationality’.
But Industrialization has brought about economic and socio-cultural changes in our
society :

1. The economic field it has resulted in specialization in work, occupational mobility,

monetization of economy, and a breakdown of link between kinship and
occupational structures;
2. In the social field it has resulted in the migration of people from rural to urban
areas, spread of education, and a strong centralized political structure; and
3. In the cultural field it has brought secularization of beliefs and faiths

Effects of industrialization on family organization :

1. Firstly, family which was a principle unit of production has been transformed
into a consumption unit. Instead of all family members working together in an
integrated economic enterprise, a few male members go out of the home to earn
the family’s living.This has affected not only the traditional structure of the joint
family but also the relations among its members.
2. Secondly, factory employment has freed young adults from direct dependence
upon their families. As their wages have made them financially independent, the
authority of the head of the household has weakened further. In the city, in many
cases, along with men, their wives also have started working and earning. This has
affected intra-family relations to some extent
3. Finally, children have ceased to be economic assets and have become
liabilities. Although in a few cases, the use and abuse of child labour has also
increased law does not permit children to work.At the same time, educational
requirements have increased, lengthening dependence upon parental support.
Accommodation in the cities is expensive and child-care is demanding.Thus, work
and home have become separated due to industrialization.

Some sociologists have, however, recently challenged the theory of emergence of

nuclear families due to industrialization. This challenge is based on the results of
empirical studies and the documentation of the variety of family systems in different
parts of the world Studies by scholars like M.S.A Rao, M.S. Gore and Milton singer have
shown that jointness is more preferred and prevalent in business
communities, and many nuclear families maintain widespread kin ties. Several recent
researchers in the industrialized West have also emphasized the supportive role, of kin
and their function of acting as a buffer between the family and the impersonal wider
world Social historians too have shown that the nuclear family was prevalent as a
cultural norm in Europe and the United States even before industrialization. However, it
has to be noted that the supportive role of the kin does not have the compulsory
character which is found in the family obligations of the Indian nuclear family.The
youngsters in nuclear family still willingly follow the normal responsibility towards the
primary kin (such as parents and siblings), solidarity of the close kin, and some sense of
unity of the family, even though living in separate households. (Dube)
 1. While the population movement from the rural to the urban areas has led to
decline in authoritarian power, growth of secularism has developed a value
system which emphasizes individual initiative and responsibility. Individual now
functions without any restrictive familial controls. Formerly, when man worked in
the family and all family members helped him in his work, there was more
intimacy among the family members but now since he works in the industry away
from the family, the intimacy in relations has been adversely affected
2. The effect of industrialization on the pattern of family relationship is also
evident from the decline in self-sufficiency of the family, and attitudinal
changes toward family. Industrialization has, thus contributed markedly to the
creation of a new social and psychological setting in which the survival of the
early joint family with its authoritarian organization has become very difficult.

The social profile of communities under the impact of industrialization is indicative of

many dimensions of linkages and interactions among segments of region, culture,
social categories and communities. It is reflected in migration of people from one
region to another which has contributed to increase of bilingualism. The Census of
India, 1991 placed bilingualism to about 15 per cent, which in reality has been estimated
to be as high as 60 per cent in survey of communities. Interaction and commonality
among
cultural regions too, is reflected in shared cultural traits, which is also true for large
number of communities across regions and territories.Such cultural traits belong not
only to rituals and institutional practices but also to technologies of occupation, skills
and division of labour. Most communities have also moved away from their traditional
occupations and show keen awareness of developmental programmes sponsored by
the government.

Growth of Urban Settlements in India

Understanding the Meaning of Growth of Urban Settlements or Urbanization in India.
Sociologists
define Growth of urban settlement or urbanization as the movement of people from
village to town/city where economic activities are centered around non-agricultural
occupations, such as trade, manufacturing, industry and management Broadly speaking,
in order to explain to process of urbanization we can discuss the following three
aspects:

1. The demographic-spatial aspects of urbanization deal with shift of people from

rural to urban areas, population density in urban areas and change in the
pattern of land use from agriculture to non-agricultural activities.
2. Economic aspects of urbanization relate to the change from agricultural to non-
agricultural occupations. As cities have been the centres of diverse economic
opportunities, they attract people from rural areas. This attraction pulls a
significant section of the rural population to the urban areas. Rural poverty,
backwardness of agricultural economy and the destruction of cottage and small
 industries also push villagers to urban areas. These pull and push factors of
migration play an important role in the process of urbanization.
3. The socio-cultural aspects urbanization highlights the emerging heterogeneity in
urban areas. The city has generally been the meeting point of races and cultures.
4. Some features of Urbanization in Ancient and Medieval India : The process of
urbanization in various periods of Indian history had distinctive spatial economic,
religious, socio-cultural political features.There features are described here under
three broad headings.
5. Political, Demographic and Spatial Factors: The early processes of urbanization
had their close relationship with the rise and fall of sponsoring political regimes
and cultural history of India, Indeed cities emerged in those periods mainly based
on political considerations. “The composition of these towns was built around
the ruler and his kinsmen and followers, whose principal interests were
centered on agricultural activities in their vicinity and the surplus they could
extract from these” (Sabarwal). Fortification in the form of a girdle of walls and
defensive ditches was an important physical feature of the traditional towns.
Town planning of ancient cities not only took note of the needs of defence but
also of the settlement of various castes in separate wards, and the location of
different activities connected with manufacturing, commerce, trade, religion,
recreation, administration and justice.
6. Economic: In spite of the rise and fall of the political powers and shifting religious
bases, the social and economic institution of the traditional cities has shown
certain stability. Guild formation was an important feature of traditional towns.
Merchants and craftsmen were organized into guilds called shreni. In those towns
there were the guilds based on the occupation of one caste shreni and also the
guilds based on different cases and different occupations called puga. Rao points
out that the guilds performed important function in the traditional towns in terms
of banking, trading, manufacturing and to a limited extent judicial.
7. Religious and socio-cultural: Authorities of the traditional urban centres
patronized particular religion or sects. This had been delineated in the social
organization and culture of the towns. For example, Pataliputra reflected the
Brahminical Hindu civilization under the rule of Chandra Gupta Maurya, while
under Ashokan rule Buddhism flourished Similarly the Islamic civilization was
concertized by the Muslim rule in the imperial capitals of Delhi, Lucknow, and
Hyderabad and in other places. The traditional towns were erogenous in terms of
the multiplicity of the religious, sectarian and caste groups. Strain specialist castes
like florist, tailor were to be found only in big towns. Each ethnic or religious
group was governed by its own customary laws. The caste and the occupational
guilds also had their own laws sanctioned by the political authority (Ray).

New features of Urbanization in Early Colonial Period

1. With the coming of European colonial traders in India, the process of urbanization
entered into a new phase. Cities grew up in the coastal areas as ports-cum-
trading centres. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, European trading
 posts were established initially for trading purposes. As the British power grew in
the 19th century, Calcutta, Bombay and Madras became the political centres too,
Indeed in this period with the introduction and development of advanced
technological knowledge, we find the emergence of new economic and political
institutions, new modes of communication such as telegraph, railways, advanced
system of roads and waterways. The process of urbanization became smooth
widened the structure of economic opportunity and widened the social horizons
of people.
2. In the nineteenth century, though the process of urbanization grew in a modest
way, the countryside suffered from the gradual process of the destruction of the
cottage and small industries in the rural areas. In this situation, the new economic
opportunity structure pulled a significant section of population to the urban
areas. Many of the artisans became unemployed Hence, the displaced rural
artisans and labourers were also pushed to urban areas for employment The late
nineteenth century, however, witnessed a large scale migration of the rural
labour force especially from Bihar and eastern United Provinces towards the jute
mills of Calcutta and other industrial destinations. To avail the new economic
opportunities many people migrated either temporarily or permanently to the
urban areas.
3. With the spread of education, the institutional arrangements of the urban centres
also changed The educated people joined the bureaucracy, and also took up jobs
as teachers, journalists, lawyers and so on. They brought about a new worldview.
The urban centres gradually grow up to be the centres of new social and political
ideas, diverse economic activities and of heterogeneous populations. The new
process of urbanization presented various economic opportunities and scope for
occupational and social mobility; it was only the upper caste and class people
who were able to make use of these opportunities.

Growth of Urban Settlement in Contemporary India

The new process of urbanisation which began with the advent of the British received a
momentum at the beginning of twentieth century. The process of this urbanization has
some distinctive features.

India is passing through a phase of rapid urbanization in the contemporary phase of

the transition of society. The modern urban centres perform diversified functions in
terms of economic, administrative and political and so on. Here, it is very difficult to
classify the towns and cities in terms of a single activity. Generally, people classify urban
areas on the basis of some prominent socio-economic and political features. For
example, people mention that there are historical cities like Delhi, Calcutta, Banaras,
Lucknow etc., industrial cities like Ghaziabad Modinagar, Kanpur, Jamshedpur, Bhilai
etc., religious cities like Mathura, Hardwar, Madurai, Allahabad etc., Cities reputed for
film making, like Bombay and Madras, have a special appeal for a villager or a small-
town dweller. In sociology, we discuss the pattern of urbanization in terms of its
demographic, spatial and economic and socio cultural aspects. But before we take up
these aspects, let us also briefly explain how we define a town in the Indian context.
Any place which satisfied the following criteria of……

1. A minimum of 5,000 persons,

2. At least 75% of the working occupations are non-agricultural,
3. A density of not less than1,000 persons per square mile, and
4. A place should have certain industrial areas, large housing settlements, places of
tourist importance and civic amenities.

Spatial Pattern :

1. Spatial disparities have marked the Indian urban scenario.These disparities

emerged mainly due to regional disparities, imbalanced population concentration
and some times because of the change in the census definition of “urban areas’.
In this context we need to mention about two concepts, namely over-
urbanization and sub-urbanization. Towns or urban areas have certain limitations
in accommodating population, providing civic amenities or catering to such needs
as schooling, hospitals etc. Beyond certain optimum capacities, it becomes
difficult for the town administration to provide facilities for the increasing
population. Bombay and Calcutta are two such examples of cities (among others)
which have urban population growth beyond their capacities to manage. This
feature refers to over-urbanization.
2. Closely related to over-urbanization of a town is a feature called sub-
urbanization. When towns get overcrowded by population, it may result in sub-
urbanization. Delhi is a typical example (among others) where sub-urbanization
trend is taking place around it Sub-urbanization means urbanization of rural areas
around the towns characterized by the following features :
 Increase in the ‘urban (non-agricultural) uses’ of land,
 Inclusion of surrounding areas of town within its municipal limits, and
 Intensive communication of all types between town and its surrounding areas.

Economic Aspect :

1. According to Mill and Becker, urbanization is a natural and inevitable

consequence of economic development Urbanization accompanies economic
development because economic development entails a massive shift of labour
and other inputs from predominantly rural sectors to those predominantly
urban. The National Commission on Urbanization of India recognizes the
economic importance of the Indian cities and towns. It considers “urbanization as
a catalyst for economic development and that the towns and cities despite their
problems are for the millions and millions of our people, the road to a better
future”.
2. When we examine the various cities in India, we find that some cities have come
up during the last eighty years in places where there was nothing but forests
earlier. One of the first steel cities in India, like Jamshedpur in Bihar, has provided
employment to a large number of people including the Santhals. These tribals
who were relatively isolated earlier have come into contact with a wide section of
 Indian population, coming from different regions, speaking different languages,
and so on. Besides Jamshedpur, three more steel towns have emerged after
Independence. These are Bhilai in Madhya Pradesh, Rourkela in Orissa and
Durgapur in West Bengal. Emergence of these steel factories has brought about
not only property but has led to the modification of the whole social scenario of
this area. According to Srinivas, areas which were socio-economically backward
have now become prosperous and cosmopolitan.
3. While talking about the economic features of urbanization in contemporary
India, occupational diversification and migration appear to be the key
aspects. The degree of urban-industrialization and planned development through
the Five Year Plans could not bring about a significant shift in occupational
structure in Indian. The percentage of Indian labour force in agriculture remained
static between 1901and 1971. In the said period 69.4% of the total labour force
was in agriculture respectively. Though the percentage of urban population
increased substantially during this period there has not been corresponding
increase in the percentage of the labour force in the urban manufacturing,
construction and service sector.
4. The proportion of urban population engaged in the primary sector (comprising,
household industry, mining quarrying, and fishing) showed an increase and that
in the secondary sector (Comprising manufacturing and processing) showed
decrease contrary to expectations. The tertiary sector (comprising commerce
and service) showed a slight recovery. Even within the urban sector, there is
a distinct traditional/rural component of occupation which is significant.
5. This brings out the still persisting, and unabsorbed rural element in the urban
sector, mostly in the periphery of large urban settlements and in the medium
and small towns with a strong agricultural base. It appears that the urban
commercial sector responded more to urbanization than did the industrial sector
in terms of working population.
6. There is widespread unemployment among the unskilled and other marginal
workers in most of the cities. Again, unemployment among educated classes in
urban areas is a peculiar feature in Indian society. It is estimated that 46% of the
total educated unemployed are reported to be concentrated in the four major
metropolitan cities in Indian (Sabarwal).

Urbanization and Migration

1. In the process of urbanization in India, migration of the rural people to the urban
areas has been continuous and is an important feature. The Urban Commission of
India viewed rural urban migration to be “of vital importance for the
development of rural areas”. The commission again points out that besides
releasing the surplus labour from the rural areas, for the landless labourers,
harijans and adivasis these cities provide the opportunities which are enshrined in
our Constitution. For these millions, our urban centres will continue to be havens
of hope, where they can forge a new future (Mehta).
 2. In India, this increase in urban-ward migration is of fairly recent origin which
began in the late 1930s. Of the total migrants in urban areas 20% persons are
displaced from Pakistan, 51% from rural areas of the same state and 25% from
the rural areas of other states. An important feature of the immigrant stream in
urban areas is its predominantly male character (Sabarwal).
3. Due to the increase of unemployment in the rural areas, surplus rural labour force
gets pushed to urban centres with the hope of getting employment The other
factors which have pulled sections of the rural population including the affluent
sections) toward the city has been the expectation of a variety of glamorous jobs,
good housing medical educational and communication facilities.
4. Here it is significant to note that industrialization should not be taken as
prerequisite for urbanization, as the process of migration from village starts when
a relative saturation point is reached in the field of agriculture. This is a result of
an imbalanced land/man ratio in the countryside.

SOCIO CULTURAL ASPECT OF GROWTH OF URBAN SETTLEMENTS

Urbanization has been viewed as an important force of social change in India, this
process has, on the one hand, meant economic growth, political change new values
and new attitudes. It reflects also the elements of continuity between rural and urban
social structures. In the process of urbanization the towns and cities of India have
achieved heterogeneous character in terms of ethnicity, caste, race, class and culture.

In the urban areas there has always been coexistence of different cultures. Studies
show that though various ethnic and/or caste groups have adjusted themselves with
each other in the city they have also tried to maintain their traditional identity. The
migrants have maintained distinctive cultural traditions in the towns. Various migrant
groups have maintained their own cultural identity.

1. N.K. Bose points out that the migrants tend to cluster around people with whom
they have linguistic; local regional caste and ethnic ties.
2. Jagannath and Haklar in there study on the pavement-dwellers in Calcutta shows
that they retain close ties with kinship and caste groups for socializing and
transmitting or receiving information from the village. Thus cultural-pluralism has
been an important socio-cultural dimension of the urbanites.
3. According to Srinivas many of the Indian towns have a “mixed” character, i.e.,
they are the capital cities, centres of trade and commerce, important railway
junctions etc.In these types of cities we find a “core”area which consists of the
old inhabitants. This area is the oldest in the city and on its fringe we find the new
immigrants.The pattern of residence of this “core” population shows a close
relation to language, caste and religion. Bombay is cited as an example of this
type of city.
4. Lynch also points out that in many Indian cities, especially in the traditional cities
like Agra, neighbourhoods have remained homo-geneous in terms of caste and
religious groups. There the untouchable Jatav caste is concentrated in particular
areas called mohallas (ward). But changes have taken place mostly because of
 politicization, spread of education, and occupational diversification.
But D’Souza noted that in the planned city like Chandigarh neighbourhood has
not been developed on the basis of ethnicity, common interest and other
similarities. In this city the religious activities, friendship and educational ties are
often outside one’s own neighbourhood.

Family, Marriage and Kinship in Urban India

1. Marriage and family are two important aspects of social life. In the urban areas
caste norms have been flexible with regard to the selection of mates. There have
been increasing opportunities for the free mixing of young men and women.
Again the voluntary associations have encouraged inter-caste marriages. As a
result there have been more inter-caste and inter-religious marriages in the urban
areas than earlier. Though it has been pointed out that joint families are breaking
down in the urban areas, studies conducted in several parts of the country also
suggest that joint families do exist in the cities among certain castes like Khatris of
Delhi and Chettiars of Madras.
2. It is usually assumed that the process of urbanization leads to decline in family
size, weakening or family ties and breakup of joint family system into nuclear
families.This assumption presupposes that joint family, as it is found in India, is an
institution of rural India associated with agrarian economy.
3. But as a matter of fact joint families are found in urban areas as welL The
correlation of “joint” family with rural areas and “nuclear” family with urban is
not tenable. Sociologists have gathered ample proof that joint families are as
common in urban areas as in rural and that in both rural and urban areas a family
may undergo a process of cyclical change from nuclear to joint and back to
nuclear within a period of time.
4. When we observe the household dimension of family in urban India, the studies
by K. M. Kapadia, I. P. Desai, A. M. Shah, R. Mukherjee, indicate that there is no
correlation between urbanization and ‘separate’ unclear households.Assumption
that Indian urbanites live in nuclear households and that urbanization leads to
breaking up to joint families cannot be sustained. Some studies show that not
only kinship is an important principle of social organization in cities but also that
there is structural congruity between joint family on one hand, and requirements
of industrial and urban life, on the other.
 Milton Singer, from a detailed case study of nineteen families of outstanding
business leaders in Madras city, argues that a modified version of traditional
Indian joint family is consistent with urban and industrial setting.
 I.P. Desai studied the role of wider family relationships. He points out that when
there is some serious illness and people need to utilize the hospital facilities not
available locally, members of the family and close kin residing in the bigger cities
are called in for help. Likewise when a person in rural areas needs educational or
economic advancement, be calls upon his urban counterparts for help.
 Recent studies show the important role of family and kinship ‘networks’ for the
rural based boys seeking new avenues in the urban setting. They also show how
 the elders negotiating with urban institutions like banks, the administration, or
the polity, ask for the help of their young relatives in cities. This does not however
suggest that there have been no changes in the family structure. Some of the
changes, which call attention to the gradual modification of the family structure
in urban India, are:
 Diminishing size of the family, owing to the increasing awareness of family
planning measures,
 Reduction in functions of family as a result of relegation of certain educational,
recreational and other functions previously performed by families to other
institutions,
 Relative equality in regard to status and rights of women as a consequence of
more and more women seeking employment resulting in economic independence
of women.
5. The phenomenon of inter-caste, inter-communal and inter-regional marriage no
matter how infrequent, in cities point to the changing attitudes of the urban
individual Similarly one can see the change in the selection pattern too. In
selection for their bride, a higher proportion of men from urban middle class
background tend to favour urban educated, preferably working girls. The
evidence also suggests that the new concept of wifehood i.e., emphasis on
conjugal relationship, in India is associated with urban living.There has also been
some evidence of increase in age at marriage in urban areas.Simplification of
rituals at marriages and incidence of court marriages in the cities reveal a gradual
separation of the institution of marriage from its sacred religious complex.
Attitude of Indian urban youth towards marriage reflects willingness to depart
from the traditional practices but often they are not able to put it in practice due
to traditional sanctions and moral pressure which have retained their rigours to
an appreciable degree in cities.
6. Still there is a general preference for arranged marriage, marriages within one’s
caste group and dowry. The increasing incidence of bride burning or dowry
deaths as they are called clearly shows the increasing emphasis on dowry both in
terms of cash and goods like color television sets, cars etc. In this regard value of
the college educated urban youth of India has increase in the matrimonial
‘market’.

Caste in Urban India :

Generally caste is thought to be a phenomenon of rural India mainly associated with
agrarian economy. Caste system has been viewed as a system which has restricted the
development of non-agrarian economy. It is assumed that urbanization along with
industrialization would induce certain essential changes in the caste-based system of
stratification.

Sociologists, like Srinivas, Ghurye, Gore, D’Souza, Rao, have conducted studies in
urban areas. Their studies have shown that caste system continues to play an
important role in urban areas. Opinions are, however, divided regarding the degree of
persistence or degree of flexibility in the caste system found in urban setting. In this
section we will discuss how the caste system has continued to persist and exert its
influence in some sectors of urban social life while it has changed its form in some other
sectors.When it comes to everyday reality caste plays a significant role.

1. Harold Gould’s study of the Rikshawalas of Lucknow shows that, as far as their
occupation is concerned, they (i.e., the rikshawalas) follow secular rules but
when it comes to personal family matters, such as marriage, the caste identities
are all important. Thus, a dichotomy exists between workplace and domestic
situation.
2. M.S.A Rao, in another example, has shown that caste system exists in cities. But
he points out some significant organizational changes in the way it exists in
cities. He says that due to the introduction of modern industry, growth of
professions and the emergence of new occupational categories there has
emerged a new class structure along with new status groups. Due to the impact
of democracy and the electoral system adopted by India, the power axis, i.e.,
distribution of power and the formation of different kinds of elites, has changed
from the traditional system.
3. In respect of the change in the distribution of power we find that in pre-British
India, upper caste was also the upper class. It would seem that now with
education and new types of occupations this correlation of caste and class is no
longer the case. A. Beteille has pointed out that higher caste does not always
imply higher class. This disharmony is most often found in the Indian cities
where new job opportunities have developed.
4. In spite of these changes caste has not disappeared and in the process of
establishing social identities it is still widely used in all parts of India. In fact, some
sociologists say that it is not necessary at all that with the process of urbanization
it will give way to class system of stratification in urban areas.
5. The establishment of caste association in order to help their caste fellows in
terms of educational and occupational opportunities, political power, etc. again
reveals the vitality of caste system. The most powerful role that caste identity is
playing in contemporary period is in politics which governs the power dimension.
The need to gain power through the modern political system has forced leaders
to mobilize people of not only one’s immediate subcaste but the wider caste
group itself. Caste provides a ready made identity along which people align
themselves. In India we have at all levels a parliamentary democracy where the
numbers of votes become very important Therefore, in today’s India, horizontal
unity of caste over a wide area, in both rural and urban sectors, provides a vote
‘bank’ that can ensure the election of a candidate from one’s own caste.
6. Caste seems to have also become a basis for organizing trade union like
associations. These associations are nothing but interest groups which protect
the rights and interest of its caste members, such as the Gujarat Bania Sabha;
the Kshatriyas Mahasabha (Gujarat), Jatav Mahasabha of Agra; etc. These are
caste associations which perform the functions of a trade union for its
members. On the one hand, this can be viewed as the strength of a caste; on the
other, as pointed out by Leach, once a caste becomes a trade union-like
organization, it becomes competitive and therefore, it becomes a class group.
 7. Certain aspects of behaviour associated with caste ideology have now almost
disappeared in the urban context The rules of commensality have very little
meaning in the urban context where one may not know or may ignore the caste
identity of one’s neighbours, friends, servants, etc. Though in family and
marriage matters, caste is still quite important but other factors such as,
education, occupation etc., of the partners are also just as important as caste.The
frequency of inter-caste, inter-regional marriages have increased as the young
people coming more in contact with each other in urban areas. It is clear that
caste is still significant in urban areas, although its functions have changed and
become modified.We may say that it has lost some of its earlier rigidities and has
become more flexible.
8. Sylvia Vatuk has shown that there has not been any marked change in the
traditional family and kinship system in the urban areas. Neither does the Indian
urbanite suddenly become an anonymous, city-bred person who is totally isolated
from primary contacts outside the nuclear family. She found that the kinship
organization in the old wards (mohalla) of Meerut city in the past and amongst
the poorer section of the population in the city even today, follows the same
pattern as in the rural districts of this region.The persistence of the similar
pattern of kinship organization, as found in the villages, in the older and poorer
sections of the city goes to show that there is no sharp cultural discontinuity
between the masses of the preindustrial towns and the peasants of the
countryside.

Social stratification in Urban India :

1. Social stratification has taken a new form in the urban society. It is assumed that
with urbanization caste transforms itself into class in the urban areas. But caste
systems do exist in the cities though with significant organizational differences.
2. Ramakrishna Mukherjee demonstrates that people in Calcutta rank themselves
in terms of caste hierarchy.
3. Stratification has also taken place on the basis of occupational categories. For
example, Harold Goukl points out that the rikshawalas of Lucknow belonging to
several religious and caste group’s exhibit uniformity in the pattern of interaction
and attitudes in respect to their common occupation.
4. Again it has been found that caste has not played a significant role in
determining the choice of occupation in the urban areas. But it is important to
note that both the caste and the class have their respective bases on time and
space and have situational focus (Rao).
5. Cities of India have to be studied in the context of cultural heritage. In the cities
many little traditions have been brought in by the migrants and the great
traditions have also achieved dimensional change. It has been pointed out that
many forms of the great traditions are modified in the modern cities. Milton
Singer shows that “the intellectual and ritualistic approaches to God are being
discarded in favour of the devotional approach which is more catholic and
suited to urban conditions in Madras city. Technological innovations like
 microphone, cinema automobile etc., are used in promoting religious activities.
Religious activities are not on decline in the metropolitan city of Madras but are
being modernized”.

Status of Women in Urban India :

1. Status of women in urban areas is higher than that of women in rural areas.
Urban women are comparatively more educated and liberal Against 25.1 per
cent literate women in rural areas, there are 54 per cent literate women in urban
areas according to the census of 1991.Some of them are working too. Now they
are not only aware of their economic social and political rights but they also use
these rights to save themselves from being humiliated and exploited The average
age of girls at marriage in cities is also higher than the corresponding age in
villages.
2. However, in the labour market, women are still in a disadvantaged situation.
The labour market discriminates against women and is opposed to equality of
opportunity-understood in a comprehensive sense to include equality of
employment, training and promotional opportunities. In this sense, change is
not possible in the sex segregated labour market whose structures ensure that
the career patterns of women will normally be marked by discontinuity, unlike
the normal male career patterns which assume continuity. Because of the
constraints of the sex segregated labour market, women tend to cluster in a
limited range of occupations, which have low status and are poorly paid Women
normally prefer teaching, nursing, social work, secretarial and clerical jobs – all of
which have low status and low remuneration. Even those women have
surmounted the hurdles to professional education are disadvantaged as they find
it difficult to harmonize competing demands of a professional career and home.
3. Generally speaking, it is difficult for a woman to remain single or to combine
marriage with career. Apart from the general expectation that all wives must be
housewives, it has been noted that women are called upon to sacrifice their
carrier when the need arises, thereby subordinating their own career to that of
their husbands. This often creates frustration among women, leading even to
psychotic illness in a few cases. Rural women, however, do not have to face such
problems.
4. It has been further found that in the cities of India, high level education among
girls is significantly associated with smaller family size. Though education of
women has raised the age of marriage and lowered birth rate, it has not brought
about any radical change in the traditional pattern of arranged marriages with
dowry. Margaret Cormack found in her study of 500 university students that girls
were ready to go to college and mix with boys but they wanted their parents to
arrange their marriage.Women want new opportunities but demand old
securities as welL They enjoy their newly-found freedom but at the same time
wish to carry on with old values.
5. Divorce and remarriage are new phenomena we find among urban women.
Today, women take initiative to break their marriages legally if they find
 adjustment after marriage impossible. In Delhi alone 20 couples file cases every
week seeking divorce from their spouses. About 2,000 divorce cases were filed in
Delhi courts in five months between January and May 1999 (The Hindustan
Times, June 12, 1999). Surprisingly, large number of divorces is sought by women
on the grounds of incompatibility and mental torture.
6. Politically also, urban women are more active today. The number of women
contesting elections has increased at every level. They hold important political
positions and also possess independent political ideologies. It may, thus, be
concluded that while rural women continue to be dependent on men both
economically and socially, urban women are comparatively independent and
enjoy greater freedom.

Thus, it may be said that though we may accept the views of scholars like Ashis Nandy,
who have talked about new aspects of urban social organization which have replaced
traditional ties, yet we cannot reject the prevalence of traditional aspects in the
functioning of family, caste, kinship and religion in urban settings.

Working-Class: Structure, Growth, Class Mobilization in India

Its history can be presented in the form of different eras with its early root in Pre-
capitalism.

1. Pre-capitalism: There were few workers or wage earners who were employed in
iron and coal mining but since their numbers were few, they could not be
considered as class.
2. Early Capitalism: With the increase in production from factories and
mushrooming of cities, the need of working class now felt. Hence people from
villages came to the places for work and constituted the working class.
3. Capitalism: A sense of class consciousness, developed among the workers, when
they began to realize that the owners of means of production were taking the
entire surplus and they were being stained.
4. During World War: Socialist parties chose to work/support the ruling class. There
was little opposition. These who opposed the war were a small section of the
working class, mostly Bolsheviks in Russia. There was huge revolution in Russia
and also workers rising in Germany.
5. Post War to 70s : It was a boom period of industrialization. The standard of living
of working class rose drastically. Now, working class no longer lived near the
industry. It was due to introduction of cheap mass transport, cheaper housing and
the reduction of societies to a body composed of individual families.
6. The 80s: The rosy picture developed during 70s soon started fading away. The
large scale heavy engineering and assembly plants began to shift from first world
to third world countries. It called for shacking of large scale workforce. Further to
compound the problem “White Collor” middle class came in. To serve there
middle class there was spurt in service sector. Full time jobs were converted to
 part time jobs. And these part time jobs facilitated the growth of women
workforce.
7. The working class Today : The nature of working class today is quite different
from that existed earlier. Today left parties have left the path of socialism and
have built rainbow alliance.

The modern working class came into being with the rise of capitalist mode of
production. This mode of production brought with it the factory type of industry. In
other words, rise of factory system of production and working class happened
simultaneously. Conversely, without a factory industry there can be no working class
but only working people.

1. In Marxian scheme, the capitalist society will be characterized with two

principle classes, bourgeoisie and proletariat. Bourgeoisie will own the means of
production and proletariat will sell their labour for wages in order to live.The
Marxist meanings of these terms have been specified clearly by Engel in a
footnote to the Communist Manifesto.
2. In recent years, Marxist view on working class has been countered essentially
from two views giving contradiction of analysis. The first view is that working
class is literally disappearing.With the automation of industry and apparent
displacement of blue-collar jobs, the working class is fast shrinking in size.
However, the fact is that it is not the disappearance of working class as a whole,
but blue-collar workers are disappearing. Second view states the opposite. In
this view all society is becoming working class. That is, students, teachers, blue-
collar workers, white-collar workers and salaried employee of various kinds are
all workers. The working class is not disappearing by elimination, but is in fact
expanding with everybody joining it except a few capitalists at the top. This view
emphasizes the so-called blurring of class boundaries but overlooks the important
social distinctions between classes. Moreover those distinctions are still very
much prevalent in the society.
3. However, the question still remains, who are the working class?As M.
Holmstorm defines it ‘people commonly refer to industrial workers, and
sometimes other kind of wage-earners and self employed workers, as the
‘working class’. Usually this means a group who share similar economic
situation, which distinguishes them from others, like property owners,
employees and managers. It suggests a common interest and shared
consciousness of these interests’. This implies that like other classes the
defining feature of working class is their understanding of ‘a common interest’
and ‘shared consciousness’. However, in recent times these two concepts have
become difficult to actualize for the working class due to their own internal
divisions and diverse socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds.

GROWTH :

1. With the growth of modern industries the factory workers gradually shaped
themselves into a distinct category. The concentration of the working class in
 the cities near the industrial enterprise was an extremely important factor in
the formation of the workers as a class. Similar conditions in factories and
common living conditions made the workers feel alike and react in similar fashion.
In other words, the principle factors underlying the growth and formation of
working mass as a class in India in the latter half of 19th century and at the
beginning of 20th century although bears similarities with the advanced countries
of Europe. Hence, the consciousness of being exploited by the capitalists/owners
of factories was evident as early as 1888, when workers of Shyamnagar Jute Mill
assaulted the manager Mr. Kiddie.That is, the reactions against the exploitation in
early phases were marked by riots, affrays, assaults and physical violence.
2. Side by side with these forms of protest there were also other forms of struggle
characteristic of working class. Typical working class acts such as strike against
long hours of work, against wage cuts, against supervisors’ extortion were
increasing in number and the tendency to act collectively was also growing. As
early as 1879-80 there was a threat of a strike in Champany Jute Mill against an
attempt by the authorities to introduce a new system of single shift which was
unpopular with workers. Presumably because of this strike threat the proposed
system was ultimately abandoned
3. The end of 19th century and beginning of 20th was marked by the organized
national movements and consolidation of working class. The national movement
especially in Bengal and Maharashtra had already assumed a developed form
which exerted a great impact on the later national awakening of the entire
country. Partition of Bengal in the year 1905 aroused bitter public indignation and
gave rise to mass national upsurge.This political development worked as a
favourable condition for the Indian working class too for moving ahead with its
economic struggles and raising them to higher pitch. The period from the
beginning of the century till the out break of the pitch First World War was
marked with widespread and dogged struggles of the workers. Moreover, the
turn of the century was also marked with the advance in industrializations with
concomitant swelling of the working class in numerical strength.
4. On the eve of First World War the capitalist development in India got
accelerated The government widely used the country’s industrial potential for
the needs of war But for the working class it was tough time. This was because
the soaring up of prices reduced the living standards of working class. While
rural areas were affected by the rise of prices of manufactured goods, the towns
faced the higher food prices. The expansion of industrialization saw swelling of
numbers of factory workers. October socialist revolution and subsequent
sweeping mass and working class struggle formed the background under which
the first organization of the Indian working class called All India Trade Union
Congress (AITUC) was born. In other words, the end of World War I, Success of
the October revolution and the first general crisis of capitalism added new
strength to the anti-imperialist struggle of India.
5. The working class did not fail to occupy its own place in anti-imperialist
struggle. In this regard it is important to note that the background of political
struggle during 1905 -08 is the unprecedented dimension of class struggle
 waged by Indian working class in the national and international set-up of the
post-war period against capitalist exploitation, bore more significance from the
point of view of workers’ class-consciousness. Then the birth of the central class
organization of Indian working class at the right moment when national political
awakening was at its peak and they were conscious as class.
6. Recession in Indian industry and economy began already in the year 1922 and
continued intensifying. In 1929 the impact of the world economic recession and
general crisis of world capitalism veritably shocked Indian economy. The mill
owners attempted to reduce wages of the workers. It is particular misfortune of
the Indian working class that they ultimately have to fall victim to the intense
rivalry between imperialists and native capitalists. But the workers did not lie low
before that onslaught, they resisted So in order to safeguard its position the
working class of India had to proceed through a path of bitter struggle.
7. World War II broke out on 1939. This had devastating effect on the Indian
economy and working class in particular. The colonial government reoriented the
economy, where by the industrial units introduced double to triple shift of work
and leave facilities were curtailed This done to cater to the war needs of England
As far as workers were concerned their economic conditions were miserable in
pre-war period and the new war made the situation more worse. This was
because of the steady fall in the wage rates across the industry. In such a
situation the working class of India had to wage struggle for protecting the
existing standard of living.The working class embarked on a series of strikes in
Bombay, Kanpur, Calcutta, Bangalore, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad Jharia, Nagpur,
Madras, and Digboy of Assam. This event along with other struggles indicates that
during this period the outlook of the Indian working class did not confined solely
to the economic demands. The working class rather fully kept pace with the
national and international political developments and played key role in the
political struggles. In such event the imperialist government directed severe
attack to forestall the struggle of working class.
8. The defeat of fascism and end of World War II saw the emergence of the Indian
working class as a highly organized, class-conscious and uncompromising force
against the colonialist. An unprecedented and irresistible struggle for national
liberation and democratic advance engulfed the country.Side-by-side the working
class had to engage in sharp economic struggles. The phenomenal rise in the
number of strike actions in the year 1946 was an indication of the stiff
resistance.All India Trade Union Congress raised the demand of stopping
retrenchment, minimum wage, eight hours work, health insurance scheme, old
age pension, unemployment allowance and several other social security
measures.
9. As soon as India became independent the political climate of the country changed
This was particularly so for the working class. That is, till independence political
and economic struggle of the working class was directed against the colonial
masters. But with independence began a new political dynamics, where power
was in the hands of capitalist and landlords. Their economic interests were
directly counter to those of the working class.
 10.The Independence though roused immense hopes and aspirations among all
sections of the society, but was accompanied with huge rise in prices and
continuous fall in the real wages of the workers. Moreover, the ruling classes
had embarked upon a path of building capitalism in the newly independent
country. This brought in immense hardships and suffering to the toiling masses
which generated powerful resistance of the working class all over the country.

STRUCTURE

1. India has a multi-structural economy where a number of pre-capitalist relations

of production co-exist with capitalist relations of production. Correspondingly;
here exists a differentiated working class structure i.e., the numerous types of
relations of production, consumption and accumulation of surplus combines to
produce a variety of forms of the existence of the working class. This is further
compounded by the structural features of Pan-Indian society along with local
conditions. So the composition of the working class is affected by the caste, tribe,
ethnic origin and the gender based division of labour between male and female
and associated patriarchy. This implies that despite internal structural differences
and the relations of production through which working people have been and
continues to be, there exists a group of people denoted as ‘working class’. Then, it
becomes pertinent to analyze the growth of working class in India. This
particularly so, when one considers two facts. First, in India prior to 19th century
there were vast working people not working class. Second, the growth of
capitalist mode of production along with industrialization was imposed by
colonial masters.
2. Given such an eventful history and growth of the working class in India, it is
worthwhile to examine structure nature of the working class in the present day
circumstances. As mentioned above, due to the existence of multi-structural
economy and effects of primordial affiliations, variety of forms of the working
class exists in India. On top of all the differences the differences in wage is also
the basis of divisions among the working class. On the basis of wage there are
four types of workers.
 First, those workers who are permanent employees of the large factory sector
and get family wage;(by ‘family wage’ it is meant that wage of the worker should
be sufficient to maintain and reproduce to only the individual but also the
workers family.) They are mostly employed in the public sector enterprises and
modern sectors of petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and engineering.
 Second, a large and preponderant section of the working class that does not get a
family wage. This includes workers in the older industries like cotton and jute
textiles, sugar and paper. Even the permanent workers in the tea plantation come
in the same category because the owners refused to accept the norm of family
wage for an individual worker.
 Third, this section of the working class is at the bottom of the wage scale. They
are the mass of contract and sometimes casual labourers in industry, including
construction, brick making and other casual workers.
 Fourth, below all these lie a reserve army of labour, who work in petty
commodities production in petty trading, ranging from hawking to rag-
picking.They are generally engaged in informal sector and carry on for the want of
sufficient survival wage.
3. The existence of majority of workers, who are not paid family wage means that
either the worker gets some form of supplement from other non-capitalist
sector or the worker and his/her family cut down their consumption below the
minimum standard. This also means that there is more than one wage earner
per household And as Das Gupta mentions that both men and women work in
the plantation or bidi manufacturing. At the same time they also supplement
these earnings with various kinds of agricultural activities including not only
cultivation as such but also poultry and milk production. Even in plantation
workers were given plots of land with which to carry on agricultural production. It
is the supplementary agricultural activities that enable wages in these sectors to
be kept low. In this sense, supplementary activities by the workers under pre-
capitalist relations of production are a tribute to capitalist sector.
4. Not only there is wage differential among working class, but variations are also
there in the terms of working conditions. Hence, better paid labour has also
much greater job security. However the workers on the lower end of wage scale
have not only job security but also have considerable extra-economic coercion
and personal bondage which leads to lack of civil rights. Similarly, working
conditions for the low paid workers are uniformly worse than for high paid
workers. So, in the same plant or site there is a clear difference in the safety
measures for the two groups of workers.The situation worsens further with
regard to women workers. For example, women are not allowed to work in the
steel plants for safety reasons, but are not prohibited to be employed on the
same site as contract labour. With such major divisions amongst the working class
of India on the basis of wage, one would expect that there would be large scale
mobility among the workers. So a worker would start as casual or contract labour
in a firm and then would move to permanent employment either in the same or
other firm.
5. A study by Deshpande of Bombay labour found the reverse to be true. That is,
around 87 per cent of the regular employees, who had changed their job, had
started as regular employee and only 13 per cent had started as casual
labour. In this regard Harris, who conducted study in Coimbatore, reported that
‘individuals do not move easily between sectors of the labour market Among the
826 households surveyed there were only less than 20 cases of movement from
unorganized into organized sector. Many in the unorganized sector had the
requisite skills, experience and education for factory job. But they lack the right
connections or to put it in another way, they do not belong to the right social
network’. This means that mobility to a large extent is dependent upon the way
recruitments are done. The above-mentioned study of Bombay labour, though
dealing with private sector, found that recruitments are done mainly through
friends and relatives. A study of Ahmadabad by Subramanian and Papola found
that 91 per cent of the jobs were secured through introduction by other
 workers. This in a way then denies the disadvantaged groups access to the high
wage employment In public sector though substantial portion of the vacancies
are filled through employment exchange, but it does not in any way means that
the causal contract or other disadvantaged groups have equal access.

CLASS MOBILIZATION :
Indian working class, as mentioned earlier, came from diverse social backgrounds in
which primordial
identities such as caste, ethnicity, religion and language played very important roles. In
recent years the
significance of these elements has been reduced but they do persist nonetheless.

1. In this regard the Ahmadabad study of Subramanian and Papola points out that
where jobs are secured through introduction by other workers, the latter was a
blood relation in 35 per cent of the cases belonged to the same caste in another
44 per cent and belonged to the same native place in another 12 per cent Friends
helped in 7 per cent of the cases.Several other studies have pointed not only
playa significant role in securing the employment, but also in the placement in
wage scale.
2. K. L. Sharma in his five studies of Pune, Kota, Bombay, Ahmadabad and Bangalore
covering large number of industries found that 61 per cent of workers were upper
caste Hindus.
3. The dominant position of the workers from upper caste was also brought out in a
study of Kerala. This study point out that in higher income jobs upper castes
dominate whereas Dalits/Adivasis have preponderance in low wage jobs. The
middle castes are concentrated in middle to bottom ranges. Even in public sector,
the representation of backward caste, schedule caste and tribe is not up to their
proportion in population.
4. Moreover, it seems that caste-based division of labour is followed in the class III
and IV jobs in government and public sector enterprises. So the jobs of sweepers
are reserved for Dalits and Adivasis. In coal mines, hard physical labour of loading
and pushing the coal tubs is done by dalits and adivasis. In steel plant the
production work in the intense heat of coke oven and blast furnace is mainly
done by adivasis and dalits. This is because, as Deshpande points out of ‘pre
labour market characteristic’ such as education and land holding. So those who
possessed more land and education ended up in higher wage sector. But then if
upper and lower caste people own comparable levels of landholding and
education, the upper caste worker will get into higher segment of the wage than
lower caste worker. This is because of the continuing importance of caste ties in
recruitment
5. According to Nathan, Caste also serves the function in ensuring the labour supply
for different jobs with the fact of not paying more than what is necessary. In
other words, the depressed conditions of adivasis and dalits helps in ensuring a
supply of labour, who can be made to work at the mere subsistence level. Hence,
caste on one hand plays the role in keeping the lower sections of the society into
 the lower strata of the working class, on the other hand, the upper caste get a
privilege in the labour market Further, caste is not only a matter of marriage and
to an extent; residence; but more so a continuing pool of social relation for the
supply of various kinds of labour for the capitalist mode of production.

CONCLUSION

1. The working class, which is the product of capitalist relations of production, came
into being with industrial revolution and subsequent industrialization in England,
in particular and Europe, in general. In this relation of production, unlike other
epochs, they did not own anything except the labour, which they sold for survival.
At the other spectrum, there were capitalists who not only owned all the means
of production but also appropriated the entire surplus generated out of this
relation of production.
2. The working class at the conceptual level seems to be fairly simple, but if one tries
to define it, the problem magnifies.The reason is that this is not a homogeneous
entity. Rather it is a complex, contradictory and constantly changing entity. Other
reason is that the concept of ‘class-consciousness’ is very slippery with regard to
the working class.
3. The consequence of this is that it is often proclaimed that either working class is
shrinking in size or everybody except a few at the top is working class. However
the fact is that working class is a distinct entity, with characteristics of its own. In
India, the situation is much more complex because of several reasons like, (a) the
forced intrusion of British capital in India; (b) simultaneous existence of multiple
relations of production; and (c) never ending identification of working mass with
primordial features such as caste, religion and other ethnic divisions of the
society.
4. Their coming into being and consolidation of working class in the world as well as
in India has been affected by local and international events of both economic and
political nature. So for carrying out further studies on the working class, these
peculiarities have to be taken into account.

The Informal Sector, Child Labour

Scholars often make a distinction between the organized or formal and unorganized or
informal sector. There is a debate over how to define these sectors. According to one
definition, the organized sector consists of all units employing ten or more people
throughout the year.These have to be registered with the government to ensure that
their employees get proper salaries or wages, pension and other benefits. Informal
sector could best be understood through its composition.

The term informal or unorganized is often used in the Indian context to refer to the vast
numbers of women and men engaged in different forms of these forms include HOME
BASED WORK (for e.g. rolling papads and beedies), SELF-Employment (for e.g. selling
vegetables), Labour on construction sites, domestic work, and a myrad other forms of
casual or temporary employment.

Composition of the Informal Sector in India

In most Indian cities the urban poor survive by working in the informal sector. Poverty
and lack of gainful employment in the rural areas and in the smaller towns drive large
numbers of people to the cities for work and livelihood These people generally possess
low skills and lack the level of education required for the better paid jobs in the formal
sector. Besides, permanent protected jobs in the formal sector are shrinking hence even
those having the requisite skills are unable to find proper employment For these people,
work in the informal sector are the only means for their survival. For the urban poor,
street vending is one of the means of earning a livelihood as it requires minor financial
input and the skills involved are low though the income too is low.

1. A large section of street vendors in urban areas are those with low skills and
who have migrated to the larger cities from rural areas or small towns in search
of employment. Other employment opportunities for the illiterate or semi-
literate migrants are working in small factories or workshops having low level of
technology, and hence having a greater reliance on physical labour, and casual
day labourers in construction sites or other places.
2. There is another section of the urban population that has joined the informal
sector; namely, those once engaged in the formal sector. These people or their
spouses were once engaged in better paid jobs in the textile mills in Mumbai
andAhmadabad and engineering firms in the formal sector (Bhowmik). A study
conducted by SEWA in Ahmadabad shows that around half the retrenched textile
worker are now street vendors. We can hence see that the urban informal sector
has a variety of occupations, though incomes are low and social security is non-
existent
3. The third category of workers in the informal sector is those who are employed
in the formal sector. These people are engaged as temporary or casual labour in
industries or establishments in the formal sector. In large factories or
undertakings one can find permanent workers and also workers who are
employed as temporary or casual labour. In many such organizations, there are
sections where casual labour is employed. This could be in the canteen or in
cleaning. In many companies the security staffs are not employees of the
company. They are hired from a separate company. These people are on contract
with that security company. They are hence contract workers. Therefore, we have
casual and contract workers working in the formal sector organizations. In many
organizations we will find that contract labour and casual or temporary labour is
used extensively.
4. The employment of such labour is because many companies do not want to
increase the number of permanent workers. The reason is that if a worker
becomes permanent then the employer has to make provision for provident fund,
give gratuity payment at the time of retirement, provide for medical leave and
facilities if the person falls ill allow the pension after retirement
 5. Other important reason is that the employer cannot remove a permanent
worker from his work. In other words, the employer can hire a worker but
he/she cannot fire the worker as easily. There is a long legal process
involved. On the other hand temporary and casual workers do not get any of the
facilities cited above and they can be removed from their jobs at anytime. In
1993, a book containing case studies in eight industries (Davala, 1993) shows that
in some industries casual and contract labour form more than half the total
number of workers employed in that industry.
6. Above description brings about certain aspect of the informal sector. The
overwhelming majority of the workforce in India lies in the informal
sector. Over 90% of the work, whether it is in agriculture, industry or services is in
the unorganized or informal sector. Workers in the formal sector do not get most
of the security given to workers of formal sector. Their jobs are insecure, as most
of the laws do not protect them. Though in principle labour laws in India are
expected to apply to all sections of industrial labour, there are inbuilt provisions
which exclude large sections of our labour force. For example, the most
important law regulating work in industries is Factories Act All other Acts such as
Employee State Insurance Act, Workmen s Compensation Act, Provident and
Pension Act etc., apply only to establishments covered by the Factories Act This
Act is applicable only to manufacturing units which employ a minimum of 10
workers and which use power and a minimum of 20 workers if the unit does not
use power. Hence a large section of industrial workers employed in small
industries do not have legal protection in their work.

Sociological Aspect of Informal Sector

1. The term’s unorganized and informal are often used interchangeably. Strictly
speaking informal is used to denote those forms of enterprise that are not
governed by any legal framework (for e.g. Registration under company law). All
though it is quite logical that an informal enterprise will employ informal
unorganized labour it must be remembered that formal enterprises also have
unorganized employees, and in fact there is an increasing tendency to informalise
employment relationship in the formal sector.
2. The use of contract workers to run canteens or do housekeeping and gardening,
employing teachers on clock hour basis, and out sourcing jobs such as data entry
are some examples that may unravel the complex nature of employment in
unorganized informal sector as well as organized formal sector.What is important
is this who there in terms of the legal status of the enterprise or employment
relations, workers in this section are the most disadvantaged one in India.
3. Two national Labour Commissions, along with several other international and
national commission, committees and conferences in the last 50 years have
documented the socio-economic conditions of workers in the unorganized sector
in India.The latest is the National commission for enterprises in the unorganized
sector (NCEUS), also known as theArjun Sen Gupta Committee, which submitted
its report to the government of Indian in 2006.
4. The Committee’s report estimated that there are over 340 million (approximately
34 to 37 core ) workers in the unorganized sector in India, and they contribute
around 60, 70 to the national economic output of country. Around 28 core work
in the rural sector of which an estimated 22 core are in the agriculture sector.
Around 6 core are in urban areas. Women make up 11-12 core of which around 8
core are engaged in agriculture.
5. In terms of overall employment, the committee’s report estimates that over 92%
of the country’s working population is engaged in unorganized sector, and that
the majority of women workers also work in this sector. Yet in spite of their vast
numbers and their substantial contribution to the national economy, They are
amongst the poorest section of our population. It is therefore imperative that
urgent steps are taken to improve their conditions.
6. By and large, there are three types of issues of unorganized sector workers that
need to be addressed
1. The regulation of their working conditions
2. Provisioning for conditions in which they are unable to continue work, such as old
age and disability.
3. Measures to help them overcome situations of insecurity such as major illnesses
and the liability of loosing employment or being loid at the will of the employers,
for which they have no legal remedy.
7. Unorganized work is characterized by low wages that are often in sufficient to
meet minimum living standards in nutrition, long working hours, hazardous
working condition, look of basic services such as first aid drinking water and
sanitation at the worksite, etc. Even a cursory glance will identity several such
occupations, including agricultural labour, construction workers on building sites,
brick-kiln workers, workers in various service industries ranging from transport
and courier services to the hospitality industry.
8. A large invisible section of workers is employed in what is called as home based
work’ where typically, workers use their own premises to do price-rated work.
This not only includes traditional crafts, handloom weaving, beed rolling but also
more modern industry such as electronics.A survey done by A1DWA (AI) India
Democratic woman s Association as for back as 1989, in pune city identified over
150 occupati one where women did home based work that ranged from making
flower garlands, folding paper for the book printing industry, supplying,
‘chapattis’ to caterers, making ‘aggarbatties’ weaving plastic seats for office
chars, deseeding tamarind and packing sweets.
9. Both formal and informal surveys reveal that on an average, unorganized sector
workers to not earn more than Rs. 30-50 per day some may appear to earn more
but the work is often seasonal and the total earning amount to naughty the some.
In order to earn more workers work longer and harder. This is particularly the
case for self employed persons such as vendor, ragpickers and petty traders, who
make their services available form the early hours of the morning to late at night
in all types of in hospitable working conditions.
10.Parents often take the help of children to supplement their own earnings, and
this is major reason for the widespread prevalence of child labour in the informal
 sector. Women are given law and unequal wages. Sexual harassment is common
but unarticulated due to fear of loss of employment There is no question of paid
leave and maternity benefits. The use of cheap labour in the informal sector is the
major source of profit for employers and contractors who exploit the workers lack
of collective bargaining power and state regulation.
11.Living in object poverty, most workers in the unorganized sector barely manage a
subsistence existence. There is no question of saving, particularly for times when
they are unable to work. Hazardous work conditions often cause accidents, loss of
limbs etc. Such disability is disas hours because there is no other source of income
for their households. More importantly, there is no provision of old age security
such as pension. When AIDHA decided to organize domestic workers into a union
in pune city, the over whelming response of women to the demand for pensions
revealed the huge insecurity they faced The lack of savings and support systems
also mean there is no fall back in other emergencies especially major illnesses or
the death of an earning member in the family the rising costs of private health
care and the systematic dismantling of the public health system in these times of
liberalization are a major reason for the huge indebtedness of household in the
unorganized sector. There is pressing head to provide insurance, especially health
insurance cover to the workers.

Broadly speaking, Informal sector is characterized by

1. Low levels of skill: Workers in this sector have low levels of education and thus
they have low levels of skills. This is the reason why they are engaged in jobs
involving low technology. Worker in the formal sector have skill and theire
position in the labour is better.
2. Easy entry: Getting work in informal sector is comparatively easier than in the
formal sector. Any able bodied person, irrespective of the skills possessed can
become a day labourer. With minimum investment the same person can become
a street vendor and sell her/his wares in the market The people need no money
to invest in a shop. In this way the informal sector is able to absorb more workers
who would not get any work because they are either not qualified or they do not
have capital for investing in business.
3. Low paid employment: Because of the requirement of low skill and the easy
entry, work in the informal sector has low returns.Workers who offer their labour
are not paid high wages. In fact, the biggest grievance against this sector is that
the wages are many times below sustenance level. In many cases, low wages
drive other members of the family in informal workforce because the main wage
earned is not sufficient for sustaining a household In this sense, children too, may
be encouraged to join the labour force.
4. Immigrant labour: Informal sector is largely composed of immigrant Most of the
workers come to the city from rural areas in search of a livelihood Hence migrant
status is a characteristic of informal sector.
 5. Informal sector in India is broadly characterized as consisting of units engaged in
the production of goods and services with the primary objectives of generating
employment and incomes to the persons concern.
6. These units typically operate at low level of organization, with little or no
division between labour and capital as factors of production and on a small scale.
7. Labour relations, where they exist, are based mostly on casual employment,
kinship or personal or social relations rather than contractual arrangements with
formal guarantees. Thus, production units in informal sector are not constituted
as separate legal entities independently of the household or household members
that own them. There is no complete sets of accounts are available which would
permit a clear distinction of the production activities of the enterprises from the
other activities of their owners.
8. The owners of their production units have to raise the finance at their own risk
and are personally liable, without limit, for any debts or obligations incurred in
the production process.
9. Expenditure for production is often indistinguishable from household
expenditure. For statistical purpose, the informal sector is regarded as group of
production units, which form part of the household sector as household
enterprises or equivalently, unincorporated enterprises owned by households.
10.One major difference between developing and developed countries is the
number of people in regular salaried employment. In developed countries, the
majority are formally employed. In India, over 50% of the population is self-
employed only about 14% are in regular salaried employment while
approximately 30% are in casual labour.

What are the social implications of this small size of the organized sector?

1. First, it means that very few people have the experience of employment in large
firms where they get to meet people from other regions and
backgrounds. Urban settings do provide some corrective to this your neighbours
in a city may be from a different place – but by and large, work for most Indians is
still in small scale workplaces. Here personal relationships determine many
aspects of work. If the employer likes you, you may get a salary raise, and if you
have a fight with him or her, you may lose your job.This is different from a large
organization with well defined rules recruitment is more transparent and there
are mechanisms for complaints and redressal if you disagree with your immediate
superior.
2. Second, very few Indians have access to secure jobs with benefits. Of those who
do, two-thirds work for the government. This is why government jobs are so
popular. The rest are forced to depend on their children in their old age.
Government employment in India has played a major role in overcoming
boundaries of caste, religion and region. One sociologist has argued that the
reason why there have never been communal riots in a place like Bhilai is because
the public sector Bhilai Steel Plant employs people from all over India who work
together. Others may question this.
 3. Third since very few people are members of unions, a feature of the organized
sector, they do not have the experience of collectively fighting for proper wages
and safe working conditions. The government has laws to monitor conditions in
the unorganized sector, but in practice they are left to the whims and fancies of
the employer or contractor.

Relevance of the Informal Sector in Indian Context

1. Broadly, the informal sector provides income-earning opportunities for a larger

number of workers. In India, there is large magnitude of workforce getting their
livelihood from the informal sector.
2. Thus informal sector has a crucial role in our economy in terms of employment
and its contribution to the National Domestic Product, savings and capital
formation.
3. Since majority of Indian Workforce is illiterate and poorly trained role of informal
sector becomes crucial for providing employment to such workforce

CONCLUSION

1. At present Indian Economy is passing through a process of economic reforms and

liberalization. During the process, merger, integration of various firms within the
industry and upgradation of technology and other innovative measures take place
to enhance competitiveness of the output both in terms of cost and quality to
compete in the international market.
2. The low inefficient units either wither away or merge with other ones performing
better. In this situation, there is a special need to take care of the interests of the
workers by providing them training, upgrading their skills, and other measures to
enable them to find new avenue of employment, improve their productivity in
the existing employment, necessary to enhance the competitiveness of their
product both in terms of quality and cost which would also help in improving
their income and thereby raising their socio-economic status.
3. It has been experienced that formal sector could not provide adequate
opportunities to accommodate workforce in the country and informal sector has
been providing employment for their subsistence and survival Keeping in view the
existing economic scenario, the unorganized sector will expand further in the
years to come. Thus, it needs to be strengthened and activated so that it could act
as a vehicle of employment provider and social development.
 Slums and Deprivation in Urban Areas
Slums have been defined as those areas where buildings are unfit for human
habitation, or are by dilapidation, overcrowding, design of buildings, narrowness of
streets, lack of ventilation, light or sanitary facilities or any combination of these
factors, are detrimental to safety, health or moral (Slum Area Improvement and
Clearance Act 1956).

The growth of slums is considered to be a major bane to human society next only to
population explosion in this century. It is a substandard housing within a city. It is an
inhabited uninhabitable habitation.

Magnitude

1. There has been no systematic scientific survey or updating of the slum population
carried out on an all India basis, though some city specific ad hoc surveys have
been done.
2. The percentage of slum population in the four mega cities are – Bombay 34.30%
 Calcutta 32.90%
 Madras 32.10%
 Delhi 31.40%
3. An all India average where the cities with 10 lakh and above population have
29.10% population living in slums.
4. The slums are also deficient of various basic services, water supply and sanitation
facilities being most acute.
5. Empirical evidences shows that higher the intensity of urbanization, higher is the
percentage of slum population.
6. Juvenile delinquency and mal-socialization of more or less prevalent in the slum
society
7. Slums act as cover for hide-outs for all sorts of crimes and vices like gambling
which prevail and thrive upon the city population.

Genesis and growth of slums :

1. Higher intensity of economic activities in cities mainly attracts poor people

particularly from the adjacent rural areas. Most of this population have
practically no resources for living and are instrumental in establishing slums and
squatters settlements.
2. A large population of such urban poor provides services to the other segment of
population i.e.. vending, plumbing, waste disposal service, domestic and
transport services.
3. No amount of legal and regulatory mechanism could stop this process because of
the economic reality of bargaining for the cheapest labour, goods and services by
the city consumers and readiness of this migrant poor population to provide the
same.
 4. To earn max income with least possible cost for living and community while
providing goods and services the urban poor frequently invades open lands if
these are optimally located.
5. The cost of housing schemes made for economically weaker sections at times
tend to be beyond the affordability of slum dwellers pricing then out from
housing supply.

Types of Slums :

1. Original slum : An area which from very beginning consisted of unsuitable

buildings. These are usually areas around an old factory or mining site which is
now given up or is the zone in transition. These sections are beyond recovery as
they consist of age old structures and they need to be razed in order to be
eradicated e.g. Mexican Slum; slums in Kolkata.
2. Transitional zone slum: It is created by the departure of middle and upper class
families to other sections or it may be due to the starting of a new industry or due
to congestion and subsequent deterioration of the living area. These are to be
found in the transition zone of developing cities.
3. The third and most unpleasant type of slum is mainly a phenomenon of
transition once the area around a main business district has become
blighted. Physical and social deterioration spreads rapidly. This type of slum
looms with flophouses, one night accommodations for the destitute, houses of
prostitution. It is populated by chronic alcoholics, beggars, homeless men and
habitual criminals.

Possible solution and steps taken :

1. Earlier the stress was on clearance of slums, which is now replaced by an

approach for the Environmental Improvement of Urban Slums (E1US) by the
provisions of basic services such as water supply, community toilets, drainage,
paved pathways and street lights.
2. Soft loans for slum upgradation and environmental improvement schemes have
been provided by HUDCO.
3. Since 1989, the Government of India has also launched the shelter upgradation
scheme under the Nehru Rozgar Yojana.
4. While preparing the master or structure plan for a city, adequate provision should
be made in the land use for the habitats/workplaces of the required urban
poor/low income service population which constitutes an overwhelming majority
in Indian cities.
5. Rather than snatching land from slum dwellers they should be provided adequate
habitable land at affordable cost at any other site or the same location where
they are staying.
6. This system of land banking will be more beneficial with long term sustainability.
7. The given land should be duly linked preferably by cycle tracks with the industrial/
organized economic activity centres in the city.
 8. Such optional locations will reduce the cost of transportation and save time
thereby reducing the cost of goods and services to consumers besides reducing
the stress in the city transportation system.
9. The allotted lands should accrue the right to the individual household and no
right to sell to prevent transfer and resquatting.
10.Such habitats should have adequate provisions for social facilities like education
and health facilities for a wholesome life. HUDCO has suggested that all housing
agencies earmark 5 to15% of the housing development area to be utilized for the
shelter less service population. As a result a land bank of 341 hectares have been
created in different states.
11.HUDCO has also requested all the state Governments to consider issuing suitable
order for reserving land for the shelterless category as done by the Government
of M.P.
12.There is no single solution to the problem of slums, nor a simple one.
13.Slum Area (Improvement and Clearance) Act that seeks to clear slums and
properly rehabilitate the discoursed population.
14.A programme for providing housing in urban areas called Valmiki Ambedkar
Aawas Yojana (VAMBAY) has been started for lower caste slum dwellers.
15.The Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNURM) which envisages a total
investment of ever 520 billion has a component for the urban poor called Basic
Services for Urban Poor (BSUP).

The problem of slums is widespread in overweight cities of developing countries.The

prime concern is not that slums are breeding ground of crime and disease, rather than
slums residents do not get a good quality of life. Only a multi-pronged approach backed
by motivated administration can tackle these problems.
 Politics and Society
Nation, Democracy and Citizenship
1. A nation is a community which considers itself one. It is held together by many
ties. One of its ties is that of territory; they live on the same land Another tie is
language; sometimes nations have single language. The people of Bangladesh
for instance, speak Bengali. Sometimes a nation may have more than one
language. Yet it may have a feeling of unity and can be called a nation. Nation
has a common tradition or history and a common consciousness of right and
wrong. They also have a common heritage of memories of glory or of sacrifice
and suffering.
2. In a nation people have feelings which are unique and valuable to group. They
have a right to enjoy means in order to realize certain communally cherished
goals. This feeling is called nationalism. Though such feeling might be present
earlier, it was during the British rule that the nationalism arose prominently. It
was the common feeling of all Indians that they were one and that British rule
was unjust It was unjust because people should rule themselves and have their
own state. They must have independence or self rule. So one of the major aspects
of Indian nationalism was its claim that India should not be a colony of Britain. It
should be an independenent state. But nationalism is not just a negative feeling.
It was not just the feeling that the British should go back and leave the
government to Indians. They thought of this also because they felt that all Indians
were one nation, one people.This feeling of commonness and of unity is called
nationalism.
3. But nationalism in India grew slowly. It did not appear all of a sudden. The story of
how India became a nation is linked with our history. From early Indian
civilization, one set of stories, epics, symbols flowed down into different areas.
4. Sometimes this tradition blended itself with religious and local customs. The epics
were the epics of the whole country, not only of one group or one section. The
rulers who set up empires in India in the medieval period belonged to different
religions including Islam. The cultural traditions that Muslim rulers brought with
them from Central Asia slowly mixed the then existing patterns of India fusion
happened in many fields and not only in the field of art In north India, the
language of Urdu developed out of a mixture of Hindi, Arabic and Persian. The
musical forms that are known as Hindustani classical music today were created by
both Hindus and Muslims. These two cultures mixed so completely that they
formed a new Indian culture. A modern India feels instinctively proud of the
temples of Konark, the cave painting of Ajanta and the Taj MahaL But these are
cultural objects of three different religions – Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam.They
are magnificent pieces of India culture.
5. This is how culture helped shape the Indian nation. Of course, when these
monuments were built and paintings were done, no one thought of nationalism.
But these symbols of a shared past give Indians a sense of belonging together.
The British rule helped the growth of nationalism in two ways.
 As we saw politically, India became one for the first time under the British. India
gradually came under one system of law, one type of administration and a
uniform type of educational system.
 Our national movement provided a number of directions to our country. For more
than fifty years, the national movement was the most significant unifying factor in
Indian politics. It created a national feeling
 First it was a movement for national freedom.The movement wanted to make
India free and independent of the British. It nurtured the urge for freedom – the
feeling that a country should be governed by its own people, not by foreigners.
 But it united Indians in another way too. People of different areas, different
religious, different languages made a united attempt to bring freedom to India.
It created a sense of belonging to the nation.
6. The national movement was spread over the whole country. Consider first its
leadership. When we think of Surendranath Banerjee, Gopal Krishna Gokhle,
Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, C. Rajagopalachari, Sarojini Naidu,
Maulana Azad, we think of them as leaders of our national movement They were
not leaders of particular communities or religious. They came from various parts
of the country, spoke different languages and wore different dresses. But that did
not hinder them from working for our Indian nationalism. Surendranath Banerjee
was a Bengali; Tilak came from Maharashtra, Gandhi from Gujrat and
Rajagopalachari from Tamil Nadu.
7. But the national movement was successful because the Indians identified with
India as a whole and not with its particular parts. Culture had heightened our
feeling of unity all along. The national movement fostered it consciously. Since
people really felt united Indian culture grew more and more unified during the
twentieth century. Poems written by poets from different parts became symbols
of nationalism. ‘Sare Jahan Se Achcha’ was written by Iqbal in Urdu and ‘Jana Gan
Mana’ by Tagore in Bengali. But all Indians accepted them and expressed their
national feeling through them.So the national movement united Indians not only
in politics but also in culture. Nationalism is not a feeling that is needed only in
the struggle for freedom against foreign colonialists. For a nation to develop, the
feeling of nationalism is necessary.In independent India too, citizens must feel
that they are one nation. The process of creating and strengthening this feeling of
national unity is called national integration.
8. When the British rulers had gone, the task for Indians was to stay together as a
nation and work for a better life. How has India performed this task?
9. The national movement set some ideals before the Indian people. After freedom
came, the Indian people initiated efforts to turn these ideals into reality. These
ideals, at least the most important political ideals among them, are set out in our
Constitution. The Constitution clearly shows that the task after independence was
not only to stay together as an independent nation but also to set up a society
which was secular, democratic and socialist Let us try first to see democratic and
socialist mean-what kind of society would it be.
UNDERSTANDING RELATION BETWEEN NATION/STATE AND SOCIETY NATION
The term refers to a group of people who have developed solidarity on the basis of
common identity of culture, region, language and state etc. The national identity of any
group, which defines itself as such, may be based on any number of criteria, such as, the
place of residence, ethnic origin, culture, religion, language.

STATE
The state is a political association which is characterized by :

1. Territorial jurisdiction
2. A more or less non-voluntary membership
3. A set of rules which define the rights and duties of its members by way of a
constitution
4. Claims to legitimacy of power over its members.

The member of a state is usually referred to as a citizen. More often than not, the state
is coterminous with national.

SOCIETY

1. It is the broadest category of social organization which includes a large number of

social institutions like kinship, family, economy and polity. In this sense, the term
society refers to social relationships which are interlinked In interacting with each
other people from social relationships. Repeated and regularized patterns of
social relationships become institutionalized and hence as a relational concept
society includes the study of social institutions.
2. On the other hand as a substantial concept the term society is a general term
which may encompass the state or the nation. It can also be coterminous with
either or both of them. For example, the Germanic Society may include the
German speaking people of East Germany, West Germany, Austria, Italy,
Switzerland etc. Take another example, Hindu society may include the citizens of
Nepal India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
3. The state may similarly include a number of societies. For example, the Indian
state includes diverse societies based on region, religion or language. The tribal
societies, such as the Bhil the Gond or the Naga, from an integral part of the
Indian State.

WHAT IS A NATION STATE?

A nation state refers to a state organized for governing a nation, or perhaps two or
more closely related nations.The territory of such a nation is determined by national
boundaries and its law is determined at least in part, by national customs and
expectations. In this sense, India can also be discussed as a nation state and to discuss
the nature of its national politics, we must first look at the way in which the Indian
nation state emerged.
EMERGENCE OF INDIAN NATION

1. Indian national politics is influenced by the historical experience of nation -

building. This experience is marked by efforts to bring together a large number
of social groups in a common national identity. The nature of national politics in
the post-independence period can be easily grasped if we outline a brief sketch
of the historical experience.
2. Before the advent of the British rule in India and establishment of sovereign
rule of the British crown in 1858, India was characterized by a large number of
small and large political units. These units waged a constant struggle to
maintain their authority over the dominions and protected themselves from the
attacks by other political units. Although there were some large scale empires
such as the Maurya, the Gupta, the Chola and the Pandya, the entire country
that we know of as India was never united politically under any rule. As such,
we had no Indian State to speak of until the British imposed their hegemony on
India.
3. However this does not mean that we had no Indian national identity, even
without a politically unified territory, many factors combined and gave the
country an identity of oneness. As stated by Kothari although people live all
their lives in villages, there villages were not as self-contained isolated islands
as was made by some Western scholars. People moved for marriage; for pity
image and for trade. The religious beliefs, practices and institutions provided
the people unifying force. One example of the unity can be seen in the setting of
four seats of religious authority in four corners of India by Adi Sankaracharya.
4. We may thus see the awareness of commonality, however nebulous it may
be.This awareness grew out of one’s participation in the world which existed
beyond one’s immediate geographical area. This consciousness did not, however,
get translated into the political domain and we had therefore, no national identity
as a nation and not as a political identity as a nation.
5. The establishment of the British rule, although it enslaved us, paradoxically also
started a process of our liberation. It made us think of ourselves as not only a
cultural unity but also as a political unity The growth of nationalism can be seen in
the efforts made by Indians for removing the British rule from this country.
6. Although we were always divided in numerous ways in terms of language,
religion, ethnic composition, the two factors facilitated the emergence of Indian
nationalism.
 One was the presence of common enemy, i.e., the British rule, and
 The other was the existence of a common cultural identity that preceded the
unification of India as one state.
7. The various struggles-violent, non-violent, constitutional, extra-constitutional-
against the British further unified the diverse groups in India.Thus, Nehru’s well-
known phrase ‘unity in diversity’ was not merely a cliche buta factual description
of the Indian experience.
8. The process of nation-building was not complete on attaining independence. It is,
in fact, a continuing process and is reflected in the nature of politics.We can also
 say that it is a process of translating cultural identity into a political national
identity.

NATION BUILDING CONTINUED AFTER INDEPENDENCE

The major task for the independence movement was not merely to attain political
independence from the British rule but also to develop a modern nation state. We can
say that some definite steps in this direction were taken at the political level while
others were at the economic level. We can discuss both types of strategies followed in
India for nation-building.

Strategy at the Political Level :

The political organization, which was carrying out the activity of nation-buikling in
India, was mainly the Congress Party. This political party consisted of diverse sections
of population and activists, in some cases, with diametrically opposite political ideology.
The members of the Congress Party belonged to different strata of society from the so-
called untouchables, on the one hand and to the Brahmin and Thakur, on the other.
There were those who swore by Marxism and some others who wanted ‘Hindu Rashtra’
and yet others who wanted to promote Islamic nationalism. Such diversity was not
accidental. The leaders of the party were drawn from the urban professional classes.
They were convinced that nation-buikling was as important as political independence.
Hence the major thrust of their political activity was to bring together as many diverse
groups as possible. The same theme is also visible in the politics after the independence
of India.

1. The Constitution of India, adopted in 1950, was the first attempt at nation-
building. We have a written Constitution which is a comprehensive document. It
provides the foundation or the design of the government.
2. India has a federal government A federal government in India implies that
authority is divided between the centre and the states.
3. The Constitution has established a parliamentary system of government, at both
the centre and the states.The word ‘Parliament’ has different connotations, the
important ones being that it is an assembly of representatives of the people and it
is a body of persons gathered for discussion. In our context, Parliament refers to
the legislative organ of the government The President is the constitutional head
of the country and the council of ministers headed by the Prime Minister.The
Prime Minister is the head of the executive which is responsible to the LokSabha.
The Parliament consists of the President and the two Houses, namely the Council
of States (Rajya Sabha) and the House of the people (Lok Sabha).
4. In the states, the council of ministers is headed by the ‘Chief Minister’ who is
responsible to the Legislative Assembly. Every state has a legislature. Some states
have one House while others have two. Where there is one House it is known as
the Legislative Assembly or Vidhan Sabha and where there are two Houses, one is
called the Legislative Council (Vidhan Parishad) and the other is known as
Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha).
 5. India is a parliamentary democracy and this means that the government is
derived from public opinion. It requires parties, rule by the majority and a
responsible government through discussion.
6. By way of building up a united nation state the Constitution of India also lays
down, among other things, some “Fundamental Duties” of Indian citizens. Some
of them are- to abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions-
the National Flag and the National Anthem, to promote harmony and the spirit of
common brotherhood amongst all people of India, to protect natural
environment, to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry
and reform, to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture and
so on.
7. Our Constitution not only provides fundamental rights to citizens but also gives
directives to the state to provide the necessary economic, social and political
benefits to the citizens. It goes to the credit of the leaders of the early phase of
independent India who were sensitive to the potential disruption of the Indian
polity. Our national leaders believed that the Constitution of India will help to
integrate the people into a united nation.
8. The adoption of socialist pattern of society in order to reduce inequalities in
society constituted another attempt of the Indian polity toward nation-building.
This tool helped to contain divisive tendencies. The inclusion of as many segments
of the population as possible was achieved by granting special privileges to the
scheduled caste, the tribals, the backward classes and the religious minorities.

One of the remarkable features of the early phase was that despite the struggle for
political power, political parties had no major dissension regarding the thrust of
politics. The thrust was to keep together diverse elements of the population and to
include the hitherto excluded categories into the mainstream of national politics.

The process of nation-building is not yet complete.This is one reason why we cannot
and should not say anything much with finality about this process. Instead we should
now turn to the process of nation building at the economic level.

Strategy at the Economic Level :

The second major step taken by the political leadership was the economic resurgence of
the country. Any political regime gains legitimacy when it can satisfy the needs of the
people.The satisfaction of the people in turn depends upon the availability of goods to
be distributed Hence the first task for the Indian state was to build the economy.This
was more so in the light of the bad shape of Indian economy at that time. The colonial
policies of the British were largely based on exploitation of the raw materials available
in India at cheapest possible rates, to be used by industry in Britain. India was used as
market place for their finished goods. The result of the policy was that industry did not
develop in the country. The little industrialization that took place during the British rule
was due to its importance in international politics. This did not at all help the economic
development of the country. Thus, it was inevitable that after the independence,
definite steps were taken to revise the economy. Formulation of Five Year Plans for
regulating the economic activity was one such step. For this purpose the Government of
India established the Planning Commission.

1. The planning process is not merely an economic activity. It is also a political

activity. The Planning Commission not only decides about which sector has to
produce how much, it also allocates projects to various states. This is where
political decisions have to be made. Let us take a concrete example. Suppose the
government decides to establish a steel plant. It is not only in terms of the
economic viability of location of a steel plant that a decision is made. The
Commission takes into account the costs and benefits in economic terms and it
also considers the decisions in terms of possible offsetting regional imbalance in
location of industries.
2. Similarly, the balance has to be maintained between the various interest groups
which have emerged around different sectors of the economy. For this purpose,
take the simple example of the use of electric power. How much electricity should
be made available to industry as against agriculture is a political decision. In the
economic sphere, as in the social and political spheres, national politics has
followed the policy of reconciling different interests and thereby avoiding
conflicts to surface.
3. The Indian nation state not only concentrated on making available goods for
distribution, but is also decided to follow the path of distributive justice.
Distributive justice refers to achieving a fair and equal distribution of goods and
services and all people. The intentions for distributive justice are clear in India’s
adoption of a socialist pattern of society.
4. A socialist pattern of society denotes that people have equal opportunities and
equal rights.The state as an administrative device guarantees individuals their
rights. It distributes goods and services equally and fairly for the welfare of the
people.
5. It also strives for elimination of rigid systems of control. For example, private
property is permissible in India, but only in so far as it does not amount to a
system of control of the owner over another who does not own it We can also
find instance of distributive justice in much social legislation, such as the
Industrial Disputes Act, which protects the rights of the industrial workers, or the
Untouchability Offences Act, which protects the untouchable castes from
discrimination or the Hindu Marriage Act, which grants rights to Hindu
women.Thus our nation-building efforts involve not only goals of development
but also equality and social justice.
6. Now let us look at the factors which have challenged our efforts for nation-
building.

Forces which Challenge Nation-building Efforts

A host of inter-related factors have disrupted efforts to achieve goals of equality and
social justice as well as building a nation state. We can see at least three main forces,

1. The diversity of groups which constitute Indian society,

 2. Regional and cultural identities, and
3. Casteism

Diversity of Constituents

1. India is a heterogeneous society. It is made of a number of diverse groups. The

first potential threat to the Indian nation state lies in this plurality The Indian
society was and is divided in terms of religion, caste, language and ethnic origin.
2. The British were able to somewhat control the diverse groups by following the
policy of pitting one group against the other. But the divisive tendencies were
sharply manifested even during the nationalist movement when different groups
apparently united to remove the British rule from India.
3. One of the more serious challenges that Indian national leaders in India face even
now is how to integrate the interests of the divergent groups. Each of them has
its own distinctive aspirations, history, and way of life. Attempts to minimize
confrontation between conflicting groups do not always succeed As we have
already seen, the adoption of an egalitarian model of society is one important
strategy to contain the divisive tendencies. It is, of course, necessary that these
divisions are not allowed to threaten the nation state.

Regional and Cultural Identities

1. The task of nation-building has also faced a threat from regionalism. We find that
national politics in our country is still marked by emergence of regional
nationalities. This is quite evident in the formation of states on linguistic basis. It
is also evident in demands by some regional identities such as the Gorklia for
Gorkha land or demand for separate Telangana state.
2. This does not mean that the regional identities should not be emphasized Some
may like to argue that regionalism does not augur well; it harbingers political
disintegration of the country. But as the nation has faced such problems earlier,
the process of reconciliation has given its polity the ability to accommodate
regionalism within its orbit The politics of reconciliation harmonises the diverse
interests of various groups in a national framework.
3. Despite the early gains of consolidation of the nation state, diverse cultural
identities asserted themselves. One example of this is the opposition in the
southern states to Hindi as the national language.Another example is the demand
for reorganization of state.Yet another example is the assertion by religious
minorities of their right to regulate the lives of their members.
4. As a matter of fact, the national level politics has recognized the existence of
regional and cultural identities and the central government has been provided
legal sanctions. It allows each state to carry out its administration in the regional
language. It does not interfere in the religious, social and political activities of the
minorities. To some people this may appear to be catering to the minorities. The
number of people holding this view is not very small. But then there are others
 who consider protection of the rights of minorities as a major gain for the nation.
This keeps the nation state together and forges a political unity

Casteism

1. The issue of casteism in national politics has been discussed again and again by a
number of people, public men, scholars and laymen alike. Caste is one of the
more distinguishing institutions of Indian society. Its role in the political sphere is
of recent origin. It is widely observed that caste has become the major basis for
political articulation. This is so mainly because caste provides the mechanisms for
bringing people together. This is also the requirement for a successful democratic
state. By politicizing the institution of caste, political process in India has assumed
a unique character. Political parties in India are formed on the basis of caste
alliances and voting behaviour of the Indian electorate can be described in terms
of caste identity.
2. As casteism is considered a social evil and caste ideology does not go well with
the egalitarian model of a socialist society, role of caste in national politics is
viewed as a necessary eviL It is seen a factor which poses a challenge to the task
of nation-building. All the same in the absence of an alternative basis for people
to come together, caste continues to play a decisive role in Indian national
politics.
3. From the above discussion, it is obvious that the task of building a nation state is
not an easy exercise. A growing realization is that national integration is the key
to achieving a political identity.

Nation Building Through National Integration :

National integration is a process of developing the different parts of the national social
system into an
integrated whole. In an integrated society, social institutions and values associated with
them have a high degree of social acceptance. However; linguism, communalism, social
inequalities and regional disparities are some of the factors which threaten the ideal
of national integration in India.

Linguism :
India is a multi-linguistic nation. Language has become, specially since Independence, a
powerful source of political articulation. For instance, in the South, particularly in Tamil
Nadu, language sentiments have been prorogated among the people for getting power
within state politics. The language problem has two aspects, namely

1. Medium of instruction at the level of school, college and public service

examination, and
2. Meeting the demands of non-Hindi and Hindi-speaking radicals.
3. Responding to the first aspect, the Government of India decided to implement a
three-language formula. This consists of teaching the regional language, or
 mother-tongue when the later is different from the regional language, Hindi or
another Indian language in the Hindi speaking area, and English or another
modern European language.
4. Today for the Union Public Service Commission in India, examinations can be
written in Hindi or English or in any regional language of the country.

Regarding the second aspect of the language problem, namely, demands of Hindi and
non-Hindi speaking radicals, the Government of India passed the Official language
(Amendment) Act, 1967. This act decided that English will continue to be the official
language of the Indian union for all the non-Hindi speaking states until these states
themselves would opt for Hindi. Thus, Hindi is today only one of the official languages of
the Indian union. The provision made under the above mentioned act and the three-
language formula have helped to reduce the possibility of conflict on the basis of
language.

Communalism :

 Broadly defined communalism refers to the tendency of any socio-religious group

to maximize its economic, political and social strength at the cost of other
groups.This tendency runs counter to the notion of the secular nation state that
India purports to be.Secularism in the Indian context is defined as the peaceful
co-existence of all religions without state patronage to any of them.The state is to
treat all of them equally. Yet, in a secular state like India, we, very often hear, see
and read about communal conflicts.While making conscious efforts towards the
goals of democracy and socialism, the Indian nation state has not been free of
communal clashes (Kishor).

Social Inequalities :

1. In every society, there is a system of social stratification. Social stratification

refers to inequality in society based on unequal distribution of goods, services,
wealth, power, prestige, duties, rights, obligations and privileges. Take for
example, the social inequalities-created by the caste system. Being a hereditary
and endogamous system, the scope for social mobility is very little.Social
privileges and financial and educational benefits are by and large accessible to
only upper caste groups.
2. Processes of change, such as democratization, westernization and modernization,
have helped to broaden the accessibility to privileges to a wide range of people.
Today, caste and politics are also very closely associated Various commissions for
backward castes have been formed for reserving seats for their members in
educational and occupational sphere. This is a reflection of the politicization of
caste affiliations. While measures to uplift the hitherto exploited and suppressed
section of the population are necessary, overemphasis on caste identities has a
disintegrative effect on the process of nation-building.
Ethnonationalism in India

1. In the beginning it was Indian nationalism an idea that took birth form the very
forces in opposition to which it was mobalised the European powers, principally
England that rapaciously colonized this land and their more progressive
ideological aspect, European enlightenment, integral and causally liked to this
colonial capacity and cruelty to which, when necessary, it also provided
rationalizations.
2. It is true that some ideologues of Indian nationalism maintain that the idea of an
Indian nation, indeed the reality of a complexly structured and administered India
state, goes back, back deep into history, to historical figures like mauryan king
Ashoka, if not to pre-historic figure of myth and legend like Ramachandra of
Ayodhya. Gandhiji evoked Ramarajya as the ideal state for which a freed India
should aspire. Which such nationalist my theology led its used in the mobilization
of the anti-colonial struggle, in independent India the nationalist discourse has
followed a for more complex path, especially in Assam and other border lands in
its nighbourhood
3. For instance the very term “nation” which in much of the nest of the country,
stands for the Indian nation state, the structure inherited from the British even if
in a substantially curtailed form and zealoushy guarded by the post 1947 Indian
State. It has rather different meaning and connotation in ports of India. In Assam
where the expression, “Assamese nation” (Asomiya Jati), exists in an ambivalent
relation with “Indian Nation” Jati in Assamese, stand for “nation while its cognate,
jat, is used to denote caste (and in some contexts, ‘nationality’) though standard
Assamese dictionaries define the two terms to mean both ‘nation’ and ‘cast’. The
collection of several jatis, rapresenting the numerous nationalities of India,
constitutes the mahajati, the greater Indian nation, that is merely a sum of its
parts without which it would be less than nothing.
4. Prof sanjib baruoh in his book, “India against itself”, terms Assamese national
imagination correlation Assamese nationalisim’ and ‘Indian nationalisim’, whose
bottom line is that are can not exist without the other. However, this idealized
interdependent nuances, affirming or challenging the ‘Indian Identity at different
point of time, reflecting the constant tensions, inevitable in the component parts
that animate this relationship.
5. These tension are not new, nor even unique to Assam and border lands of north
east The assertion of distinct, ever unique, regional identities by a people that
have a continous record of history and literature going further back in time to
those of ‘Aryavarta’ was viewed in the early years of independence is not much
different form separatism with the potential to become secessionist Regional
assertions were seen as reflecting merely ‘fissiparous tendencies’, one of the
greatest challenges facing the strong, centrolised unitary state that the early
leaders of Independent India wanted to craft Only this explains the resistance to
the popular and democratic demand for the linguistic reoganisation of Indian ,
despite the fact that the congress structured itself on a linguistic basis.
6. The reorganization of states on a linguistic basis took the edge off strident
regional assertions. However, regionalism has since taken other, more
complicated forms-some deriving and in turn, contributing to other ideological
and theoretical formulations. In Assam and its environs, regionalism as an idea
almost inevitably evolved into demands for political autonomy and in course of
time, more militant form of nationalist assertion.
7. The reason for such evolution are rooted in both geography and history, Historical
factors like late entry into British India through a prolonged incremental process
involving both conquest and annexation (1826-95), and the realities of geo
graphical isolation from the rest of India have influenced this trajectory. However
this too is a pan-Indian phenomenon, subdued in some cases, strident in some
others, of which the Dravidian movements are not the only instance.
8. These sub national narratives evolved in due course as assertions of ‘ethnic
identity’, the reclaimed history now serving a political end This is now being
situated within frame work of ‘ethno-nationalism’ that is bound to evolve into
‘ethno-nationalist’ narratives.
9. This terms have evolved or been created to explain the past and provide a
theoretical framework for future action, that is to mobalise popular discontent
and press political demands. The demands very greatly, from the modest and
attainable through negotiations to these that are perhaps not even intendend to
be attained but are nevertheless pressed to advance other objectives. The
attainable objectives include greater autonomy, modification of the existing
indentities of caste or tribe, protective discrimination, re-denomination of
nomenclatures of historically re-cognised communities, creation of exclusive
political spaces, extension of constitutional provisions like the sixth schedule
applicable at present only to the tribal people inhabiting and indigenous to the
two hill district of Assam, demands from some non-tribal communities for
recognition of tribe one can go on. All such demand of varying degrees of
autonomy, expansion of the existing territorial and political space, and
reclassification of denomination and nomenclature can be, and in some cases are
being, negotiated within the framework of the India state and the constitution.
10.However, such compromise seems impossible in instances of sovereignty
assertion, based on the ‘inalienable right of a people for self determination’,
which in practice exclude the ‘other’. No wonder, the three major sovereignty
movement based in Nagaland Manipur and Assam are all split, some into several
faction that they are split has, however, not in the least mitigated the passion for
or virulence of the sovereignty assertion. The splits reflect the reality of division
within the people. these structure claim to represent, the inherent flaws of such
exclusionary nationalist assertions that by defination cannot be inclusive of all
people in that tenitional space, as well as efforts of the state to control the
virulence, canalize the passion.
11.The dilemma facing these movements is that such exclusionary theories of
sovereignty and self determination have never matched their practice. Rather,
these are animated more by the fear and hatred of ‘other’ especially those that
are part of the territorial and political space they claim as their own, than by any
 genuine democratic commitment to the theory and practice of self
determination.In essence, these movements of ethno-nationalism are no
different form Hindutva movement that too are animated by fear and hatred of
the ‘other’. Hence, too, the phenomenon of ethnic cleaning that is as much an
integral part of such ethno-nationalist assertion as of the Hindutva movement.
12.However, while the murderous manifestations of Hindutva assertion are rightly
condemned, corresponding manifestations of other exclusionary tribal or ‘ethnic’
nationalism do not evoke the same kind of sharp criticism.

DEMOCRACY AND INDIAN NATION

1. Our system of government is a democratic one. Democracy means, above all

equality of all citizens. It means the end of inequality. Before democracy came,
most societies were based on unequal political inequality. In Europe, democracy
evolved slowly from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. In India democratic
government was set up after we got independence.
2. Democracy is an excellent ideal. But it is not easy to achieve this. It is particularly
difficult in a society like ours, in which there have been many kinds of traditional
inequalities.The inequalities based on caste and class, and the conflicts between
religious or language groups, make it difficult to run a democratic government So
these are sometimes called challenges before Indian democracy. If Indian
democracy is to become strong, we must overcome these challenges.
3. Democratic government is built two very important ideas : freedom and equality.
Democracy is a form of government which gives people freedom. Within limits
they can do what they want They can think and say what they like. They have
right which the government cannot take away. But all these are also related to
the ideas of equality. Two people can be free together only if they are equal and if
both of them have the right to freedom. So the ideas of freedom and equality are
linked to each other. We talk of three types of equality-Political Social and
Economic.

Political Equality :
Equality can mean many different things.First, of course, is political equality.This means
that in a democratic country everybody has equal political rights.

Social Equality :

1. Besides political equality, our Constitution places a lot of emphasis on social

equality.This is because polities is not the only field in which people come in
touch with each other. Besides, elections, campaigns, voting or entering into
legislatures, people have other types of social contacts. At places of work in their
everyday lives, citizens have to constantly interact in market for day-to-day
activities with great inequality between people. The worst form of this inequality
was the caste system, and particularly the inhuman practice of untouchability.
 2. This meant that people could not treat each other as equals.There were
restrictions placed on marriage. People from different castes could not eat
together. Most serious of course was that whatever the achievements of a person
are, if she or he came from a lower caste, she or he would be treated as inferior
by the upper caste people. Usually the different types of occupations were so
divided that people from the lower castes were also the people with lower
incomes. Quite obviously a society which practices this sort of social inequality
cannot run a democratic system which requires that Therefore, of the ideals of
the Constitution is to establish social equality in India.

Economic Equality

 Democracy does not mean just political and social equality. Our Constitution says
that the Indian state has several objectives. These objectives are-liberty or
freedom, equality, secularism and socialism. All these objectives are related to
each other and to the ideals of a democratic society. Let us see how they are
related Political equality is equality in matters of government and enjoying rights.
But today democracy has come to have a much wider meaning.
 Some people would ask; why should democracy and equality be restricted only to
the political sphere? Why not extend it to other spheres of life too? Politics after
all is not the only important aspect of our lives. Our economic life, i.e., how much
money we earn and what we can do with that is equally important Do we not
need equality in that sphere too? Only having the right to vote is not enough. If
some people are very rich, and others live in poverty, that kind of society is bad
and should be improved Individuals should be equal not only in politics but also in
economic life. They should have equal opportunities to enjoy various things which
money can get It is called economic equality. Without it democracy cannot be
complete.

Secularism
Our Constitution mentions another goal called secularism. It has specific reference to
our situation. Unlike some other countries, India has number of religious groups. People
belonging to all the religious co-exist in this country. It is therefore, essential for the
Indian state to be secular. For a democracy to work well it is very important that the
government should treat all citizens equally, whatever their religions be.This is what is
called the principal of secularism. Among Indians there are people of almost all
important religions in the world We have Hindus, Muslims, Christians,Sikhs,
Buddhists,Jains and Parsis. But their religions are matter of their private belief. In
matters of politics, such distinctions are irrelevant A secular state means two things.

1. Firstly, it means that all citizens are equal before law whatever their religions are.
To put it differently religion should not be mixed with political life.
2. Secondly, this also means that people of all religions have equal right to practice
their religions.
Indian democracy has been moving ahead since independence. We feel satisfied with
the functioning of our democratic system. We know that in many other countries
democracy has failed As we have seen in previous chapters, the democratic system in
India has been built upon the basic principles of equality, egalitarianism, socialism and
secularism.The Constitution of India has made adequate provision to ensure that these
principles are realized It has also tried to reflect the major concerns of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights adopted by United Nations in l948. When all these ideals
are realized substantially the democratic system becomes sound successful But history
teaches us that these are not realized easily. Our democracy also faces a number of
difficulties.

FACTORS THAT HINDER THE SUCCESSFUL FUNCTIONING OF INDIAN NATION AND

DEMOCRACY
Inequality

1. As we understand democracy means equality among citizens; all kinds of

inequalities are detrimental to a democratic society. Unfortunately there are
differant types of inequalities in our society. Democracy is not against variation
between people. On the contrary, it implies that differences between people-in
their habit, customs, beliefs and opinions-ought to be respected One group
should not try to improve their way of life on others.
2. There are lots of differences among Indians. Indians speak different languages;
belong to different regions having distinct culture, follow different religions. But
here we are mainly concerned with the inequalities-which are creating obstacles
in the working of a democracy. There are various kinds of inequalities in our social
life.
3. There is inequality between the rich and the poor, inequality of income or of
wealth. There are inequalities between the so called upper castes, the so called
lower castes and those who are called the untouchables. There is inequality
between man and woman, between literate and illiterate. Here it is important to
note that people suffer from these inequalities because of no fault of theirs. It is
the responsibility of a democratic society to ensure equal opportunities to all
citizens, so that they do not suffer from these inequalities.

Communalism

1. The greatest danger to a democratic society comes from the tendency to place
one’s community above others.There maybe communities based on religions,
caste, language or region. But if one community is placed above the other
communities, it will mean that the particular community will have more rights
and opportunities than other communities. This is clearly against the principles of
democracy. One great hindrance to Indian democracy is religious communalism.
Communalism means placing one’s own community above others, even above
the nation.
 2. During British rule, national freedom movement people belonging to all religions
fought against the British for national freedom. Those who led the movement,
those who fought for it on the streets, the martyrs who died for it, belonged to
different religions. However, at the time of independence, the British split the
country into two states-India and Pakistan.
3. At the time of partition of the country, ghastly communal riots broke out, and
thousands of innocent people were killed and many more were forced to leave
their homes. Thousands of Hindus from Pakistan and Muslim from India had to
leave their homes in which they lived for generations.They had to leave their jobs,
their property and had to flee to an unknown area to live as refugees. This left a
long trail of mutual hatred among the two religious communities.
4. It was very unfortunate that independence had to come to us this way. But
communal problems did not solved with the riots at the time of independence.
Even Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, was assassinated by religious
communalist.
5. Some People want India to be a Hindu state, because they feel that Hindus are in
a majority but this is a wrong idea. Because India is as much a country of the
Hindus as of the Muslims, Christians and others who have born in culture
Precisely because it is not the culture of any one community, but of many. Take
two examples.
6. First of all we are Proud of the beautiful architecture of our Past The whole world
marvels at them. But these are the contributions of different communities. The
great stone temples of Konark or Khajuraho were made by People who were
Hindus. Many of the figures carved out on them are Gods of Hindu religion. The
Taj Mahal was made by a Muslim equally feel Proud of the Taj built by Muslims
and the great temples built by Hindus. Now, take the example of our classical
music.
7. We have great Muslim and Hindu musicians. Everybody honours them because
they are artists of Indian music, not because they are Hindus or Muslims.We have
similar feelings for our respect for the unique and composite culture sustains our
democratic system. Our culture and our secular state would be destroyed if all
People belonging to different retigion are not treated equally.

Minority Rights

1. India is a land of many religions and languages. This creates some special
problems for our democracy. Democracy works on two Principles which are of
equal importance. First, it is a government based on the majority Principle,
second the government based on tolerance and consensus. It does not make
People do things by force.
2. This second Principle of democracy is the basis of minority rights. Our
Constitution makes provision for such minority rights. These rights have been
guaranteed by the Constitution. These cannot be taken away. These rights are
universally Human Rights.
 3. The question of minorities has come up very much in two fields-religious
communities and cultural groups. If you take India as a whole, number of minority
communities like Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, excites because of this situation that
the Constitution gives a fundamental right to the religious and linguistic minority
communities to establish their own educational institutions. It is important to
note that in our country the rights of the minorities are adequately protected The
intolerance of the majority can also harms democracy.

Regional Aspirations and Regionalism

1. Our country is so large that there is a great diversity among its many different
regions. A region is an area, the inhabitants of which have a sense of unity and a
feeling that they are distinct from others. But of late the more common use of
this word refers to a sense of unity based on language, culture and economic
interests.
2. After independence, states in India were reorganized on the basis of language.
But regions do not always coincide with states. Within a state with a majority of
citizens speaking one language, there may be other citizens speaking other
languages. Moreover, People with different cultural background having different
economic interests live within the boundary of state.Therefore, regions and
regional problems are not confined within the boundaries of the state.
3. These in fact cut across the state boundaries. Unfortunately we have been facing
a number of regional problems throughout the length and breadth of the country.
In a democracy regional aspirations are not always wrong or bad which are
related to our history of colonial exploitation. During British period some areas
which were close to ports, or towns which were important centres of
administration were developed by the Government Industries grew in and around
them.
4. In such places facilities like good educational institutions, transport system and
other civic amenities were provided By contrast, other areas which were often
parts of the same region where people spoke the same language were left very
backward Tribal areas experienced very little effort at development This kind of
backwardness is the cause of inequality between regions.
5. Popular feelings against regional inequality have led to movements for regional
autonomy or for a new state.Sometimes, people have demanded comparatively
more economic and political autonomy for a particular region. In fact, this is
called a demand for regional autonomy. Even such feelings have led to
movements demanding creation of new states.
6. However, this also leads to what is known as the problem of regionalism.
Sometimes demands of political parties or groups against neglect of a region
appear to be against the unity of the nation as a whole. At times, this leads
people to say that a particular region is only for its own inhabitants, it becomes a
seriously wrong approach.
7. First, this idea clearly goes against some constitutional provisions.Our
Constitution gives us right to live or work and equality of opportunity, which
 would be harmed if such idea is promoted We all believe that we are, despite all
differences, one single nation.
8. If every region is supposed to belong only to the people of that region and not
others, the idea of India as a nation itself will be destroyed In fact, regionalism
does not always do well to the region itself as contribution of other regions is
essential for its growth and development Regional aspirations therefore are quite
natural and should be respected But regionalism, as a feeling of hatred against
other simply because they do not belong to the region, goes against the feeling of
all Indians constituting one nation.

Caste and Untouchability

1. It is good to be proud of one’s heritage. But one must not do it blindly. It is

equally important to be critical about it A practice is not good simply because it
has been there for a long time.Whereas we have a great cultural heritage, many
things in our traditional society are bad and these must be changed if we are to
progress and have a democratic society.
2. One of the great problems facing our democracy has been the rigid caste system.
It had divided our society into so called high and how castes. Thousands of years
ago the Hindu society was divided into four categories: Brahmanas, Kshatriyas,
Vaishyas and Shudras.
3. These categories have been known as Varna. However, the caste system, and not
so much the Varna system, has been responsible for maintaining the social
inequality in India. The caste system had ordained professions by the accident of
birth in a given family and jati. It has been believed that the four major caste
categories have had types of work in every society.
4. The Brahmins would do rituals, worship and educate the young. The Kshatriyas
would learn warfare and defend the country. The Vaishyas were supposed to
carry on trade. And finally, the Shudras the lowest of the four categories were to
do all other types of work which needed physical labour-like agriculture and other
menial work. We all now accept that such a system is not good for our society.
5. This kind of inequality is entirely unjustifiable as the most important activities of a
society include agriculture and the production of other necessary things. Do
people not need food or clothes or other to survive? And is it not very unjust to
treat those people who produce these things for the rest of the society as the
lowest of all?
6. Besides, how does one say that the skills of mind and body travel in the family? As
the sons of great poets or players do not necessarily become poets and players by
virtue of their birth, similarly, what is the guarantee that the son or daughter of a
Brahmin would like to study and be a scholar. Or, that the son of a warrior would
also be good warrior? The caste system which existed in ancient India was thus a
very unjust system.
7. With the passage of time, this caste system has become very complicated Instead
of four castes now there are innumerable castes. Each caste has its own rites and
ceremonies that distinguish it from others. They ask their boys and girls to marry
 within their caste and not to outsiders. Each caste has many sub-castes.
Accordingly people have to lead their lives under very odd restrictions.They
cannot eat from others, or with others. It means that people belonging to one
caste treat others with hatred and suspicion.
8. Worst of all has been the system called untouchability. People of upper castes
would not even touch those of lower castes. It was shameful and inhuman aspect
of our old society. People belonging to the lowest castes would not be given
education. They could not eat with others. They had to live outside the villages.
Sometimes they could not eat with others.
9. They had to live outside the villages.Sometimes they could not even use the wells
from which other people drew water. Yet often they were doing some of the
most important works for the society.They tilled the land of other people because
they were too poor to have land of their own.Society treated them most unjustly
although it benefitted out of their labour. But it did not treat them as equal to
others.
10.There were sometimes protests against such injustices. At times, lower caste
people rebelled Later, social reformers tided to abolish these practices.
Nationalist leaders, especially, Gandhiji tried hard to abolish untouchability. But
to abolish a system that has continued for hundreds of years is not easy. Those
who benefit from the system, the so-called upper castes would not let it go. After
independence, laws were passed making untouchability an offence.
11.But laws are not enough. It is important for others to respect the rights of those
who belong to lower castes in your society.And it is equally important for those of
the so-called lower castes to assert their equal rights.
12.Ordinarily, people of the lower castes were poor. Because of their poverty, they
were unable to have education and as a result, they could not get better jobs. To
offset this, our Constitution has included certain revisions under which, some jobs
are reserved for those belonging to the Scheduled Castes. This category is known
as Scheduled Castes because the names of these lower castes are put into a
schedule or a list prepared by the Government Some seats can be reserved for
them in educational institutions also.
13.This is a way of undoing the injustices that the society had done to them for
centuries. Like the Scheduled Castes the Constitution also guarantees some
reservations for the Scheduled Tribes in jobs and admission in educational
institutions. As long as discrimination against these castes and tribes remain,
there can be no real democracy. It violates the principle of dignity of the human
being. It goes against the main principle of a democratic society that all human
beings should be regarded as equals.

Inequality of Women

1. Traditionally, another negative aspect of our male dominated society was the way
it treated women. This has been the situation not only in India but also in any
other societies of the world, but in the Indian society it has some peculiar forms.
Society’s laws and customs were made primarily by men which went in their
 favour. Women have sometimes been treated as little better than slaves. Often
their own families would consider women as fit to cook, work in the household
and look after their children.
2. They have been told that they can not do important work outside the house, or
take important decisions for themselves. This kind of view is doubly wrong.
Firstly, these types of work-cooking for the family, keeping the house, or looking
after children are not at all unimportant work. In fact, these are most important
of all being extremely necessary for the society.
3. To consider these types of work unimportant precisely show the prejudices that
men often have against women. Secondly, it is also not correct to say that women
need not work out of home. If one travels through the countryside during
planting or harvesting time, one would find women working in the fields. Those
who live in cities must have also seen women working in offices, schools and
factories.So we see everywhere, in almost all walks of life, women do as much
work as men.
4. Although they do so much for the society, our traditional society often treated
them very cruelly. They are even not allowed to take decisions for
themselves.They have little say in the matters of the family. At one time, there
was a horrible practice of sati.A woman whose husband died was burnt to death
with him.
5. Another strange system was the purdah. In some homes, women were not
allowed to come out in front of outsiders, or come in contact with any man who
did not belong to their own family. Women could not go out of their house very
often. And the potential they might have had was never realized Of course, these
practices have declined now.
6. But stilf if you look carefully around you, you will find many instances of people
treating women differently from men. For example, even in the cities, among
educated people, dowry is being demanded from the family of the bride. This
practice treats the girl unequal to the boy. Discrimination against women also
occurs in economic practices. Quite often women are paid less amount for doing
the same work as compared to men. so, although the situation has changed and
some of the terrible practices of the past have gone, the question of raising the
status of women still remains.
7. The change in the status of women that are coming, are the outcome of various
factors. Living in cities is one of them. Education of women is another. Women
now go to schools and colleges just as much as men. They work in offices. They
often join politics, and become parliamentarians, ministers, even the Prime
Minister. Still in our vast countryside, women are ruled by tradition and are
bullied and oppressed As democracy means equal treatment to all such acts of
inequality and prejudice against women have to be stopped.

Inequality between the Rich and the Poor

1. One of the major problems before a country like ours is economic inequality. One
of the most obvious forms of inequality is the inequality between the rich and the
 poor. This is inequality of income and wealth. As money helps buy all other goods
and services, this extends to all aspects of peoples lives. The coming of industries
helps reduce some inequalities, for example, caste discriminations in modern
cities. But the most important question before our country is the question of
economic inequality. A poor man is politically equal to a rich man. Both have a
single vote in elections. But his equality does not mean that they are equal in
other equally important fields.
2. The problem of poverty is the result of economic inequality. It is the question of
some people having a large income that makes it easy for them to live
comfortably and others being too poor to even eat properly once a day. Poverty
exists in different forms in cities, industrial centres and in villages where people
depend on land. In cities, the poor are mainly workers. In villages poor are small
peasants or those who have no land Let us look into the problems of poverty in
villages as well as cities or industrial places.
3. Still there are certain things that have not changed A poor man can become rich
now, but the distinction between the rich and the poor remains. Formerly, it was
rank and birth, now it is wealth and money. An industrial society left to itself,
continually increases this distinction. The socialists claim that in such societies,
the rich become richer and the poor becomes poorer. Growth of industries
improves the productivity which in turn improves the economy of a society, no
doubt, but it also leads to greater inequality between various classes.
4. Although advantages of industrialization cannot be denied its capacity to create
new problems cannot be overlooked either. Due to industrialization new classes
arise, and with them new types of oppression, exploitation and inequality. In the
cities, the problem of poverty is very acute among workers in industries. Indian
democracy also faces challenges from wide spread rural poverty.

Poverty in the Indian Villages

1. The poverty in villages has a pattern quite different from, that exist in cities. In
Indian villages men tilled the same land for the same kinds of crops, with the
same kinds of implements for years together. They lived in the same kind of
houses, had the same kind of thought, and had exactly the same superstitious
beliefs.
2. Some changes have taken place in our village life after independence. The efforts
of improved agricultural production have brought about such changes. But many
of the problems still remain, particularly, there has been very little change in
those aspects of village life, which cause poverty.

Land Reforms

1. One of the major problems in rural life has been related to land ownership. The
man who actually tilled the land did not own it On the other hand the owner of
the land, without doing any work received benefit through his tenant’s labour.
 This was a very unjust system. It reduced productivity of land causing poverty to
sustain.
2. Changes in such a system in favour of the actual tiller of the land that produced
the crop was essential. This required measures which came to be known as Land
Reforms. After independence, a number of land reform laws were passed by state
government But those who owned land have often managed to thwart the
process of implementation of such laws.
3. When land ceiling laws were made to limit the extent of ownership, land was
transferred in the names of other members of the family. So the law could be
satisfied but land still remained with the same people. Land reform legislation has
thus not been able to remove the inequality in holding of land among peasantry
in all the states of our country.
4. Poverty is much greater among the landless rural folks who work for others who
have land and live on the wages. Wages are usually very low. During lean season,
having no works the poor peasants and agricultural workers suffer great
hardships. This can be removed if land is more equally distributed Some relief is
sought to be given to the poorer section of the village people by various
programmes. Many states have the integrated Rural Development Programmes
which are meant to help them. Sometimes some states run the food for work
programme which can also be of great benefit to the rural poor at the time when
they find it difficult to get work.
5. Besides inequality of land ownership, some other evils in the countryside were
even more unjust Sometimes, people were compelled to do bonded and forced
labour.Sometimes, peasants or landless workers had to borrow money from the
local landlords or money-lenders when they were hard pressed They were
charged incredibly high rates of interest As they were never able to pay off the
money, they were asked to work for the moneylenders to pay off their debts.This
practice resulted in rural poverty due to indebtedness. Many of the debtors had
to work for their whole lives for the landlord or the money lender, for a small sum
of money they had to borrow at one time. This was called bonded labour. Now
bonded labour has been abolished by law. But still one comes across occasional
reports of such practices.
6. Such problems are also related to illiteracy. Many people in our countryside still
cannot read or write. They are often cheated in matters of contract and
employment as they cannot read what is written in the paper. So the powerful
and moneyed class exploits the poor. Thus the main problems in the countryside
are inequal land distribution and debts of the peasantry

Poverty in Towns

1. Towns are usually centres of industry or trade. In both these sectors, there are
thousands of labourers who migrate to cities in search of jobs. But cities have no
plan or provision to accommodate such people, workers, therefore, have to live in
vast slums which lack even the basic facilities like electricity and drinking water.
 2. Actually most of our industrial cities are vast slums with comparatively smaller
pockets of better housing and sanitation. Workers often do hard labour for long
hours but get low salaries with which they cannot buy good food If they are sick,
they often cannot afford medicine. Unhygienic conditions make their lives even
worse. Once a worker gets too old or too sick to work, there is no provision for
any kind of security

Unemployment

1. The problem of poverty has been a great hindrance to the successful functioning
of democracy in India. Another major factor of poverty is the prevalence of
unemployment Our economy has not been able to create adequate employment
opportunities. As a result, the number of the unemployed has been increasing.
Besides, there are a large number of people who are unemployed These people
do not have opportunities to work to their potential.
2. The problem of unemployment is very much visible in cities, but is less visible
though equally acute in villages. Where three persons are enough to cultivate a
plot of land we find four or five person involved in that work.This kind of situation
leads to disguised unemployment The solution of the problem of unemployment
lies in faster economic development

Population

1. Population has been a great challenge to development Although population is

considered an asset, the faster pace of its growth has been a cause of great
concern. The population of India has grown three times since independence. If
the present trend of growth continues, the present population will double itself
with the next three decades.
2. The pressure of growing population in our country has been generating a lot of
problems for economy as well as environment Even when the pace of economic
development is accelerated to meet the needs of the growing population, the
problems are not going to be solved The faster pace of economic development
will require more use of our limited resources.
3. The best way of economic development is to utilize our resources carefully.The
resources should be utilized in a way that adequate resources remain to be
utilized by the coming generations. This kind of development is known as
sustainable development With this kind of development, we can be able to save
environment from being polluted It is therefore essential for us to reduce the rate
of growth of population.
4. The causes of population growth in countries like ours are many. The main
reasons for growth of population in India are prevalence of poverty and illiteracy,
low status of women, high rate of deaths of people and particularly of infants and
mothers. Because of these factors, the birth rate remains high, resulting the
faster growth of population.
 5. The increasing population puts a lot of pressure on agricultural land in villages. In
cities population grows due to large scale migration from rural areas in search of
jobs. In order to ensure population stabilization, four important steps are
necessary. First, urgent steps are needed to remove poverty and illiteracy. It is
more important to make our population literate.
6. Females in particular are to be made literate.Secondly, there is a need to ensure
gender equality. To attain this goal it is necessary to provide special opportunities
of education for girls. Females are as important members of society as males.
Women must be given equal opportunities to work outside homes. Their
potentials are to be fully utilized by the society instead of confining them to
home.
7. Thirdly, the health facilities need to be extended to all so that, greater care of the
health of infants, children and mother can be taken. Fourthly, the country needs
to adopt and realize the policy of sustainable development It means that the
development processe are to be promoted in a way which enables the economy
to meet the requirements of all the people but does not lead to an over-
utilisation of resources.

Nepotism and Bribery

1. Many other types of problems also add to the challenges to Indian

democracy.Some practices like nepotism and bribery reduce the efficiency of the
government This also causes frustration for the ordinary citizens, because, at
times they fail to get their dues.
2. Sometimes these result in violence among the youth.Certain degrading business
practices like hoarding of goods and commodities for profits also lead to
problems. There are some malpractices like smuggling and accumulating black
money which make the administration corrupt and inefficient and hinder the
development of the nation.

SUGGESTIONS TO SOLVE THESE PROBLEMS

There are many types of measures which can be taken up to solve these problems.

1. Education can improve people’s economic conditions and pave way for better
understanding. But it is not only formal education that is needed to fight the ills
from which our society suffers. Literacy, of course, is of great help. A literate
person knows more about rules and laws and her/his rights and duties.
2. Awareness of laws can be created even among illiterate people.But the crux of
these problems are essentially economic and these economic problems have to
be tacked by measures like land reforms, reduction of unemployment or by
providing under employment benefit to those who are out of jobs. This will bring
greater social equality.
3. The government has to legislate on these measures. But just legislation is not
enough. It must also see that people do not find loopholes as to slip away through
those.
 4. Increase in productivity is necessary both in industry and agriculture. In
agriculture productivity is increased by use of better seeds and fertilizers, by the
use of farming machines, etc. This has happened in some areas of our country
through ‘Green Revolution’. As a result of this, India has become self-sufficient in
food Earlier, we did not produce enough food for all Indians. Over the last many
years, we have not only produced enough food but we have produced more than
we need So some of it is now exported
5. Productivity has to be increased also in industries. This can be done in two ways.
If the machinery is improved this can lead to more production by the same
worker. Another way of improving productivity is by the worker learning more
skills. Usually these two have to go together.To use a more efficient machine, the
worker has to be more skilled. Therefore, increased productivity also needs that
education should be spread among workers. They should have the knowledge of
new techniques and skills.

Ambedkar on Democracy.
Ambedkar had complete faith in democracy. Dictatorship may produce result quickly, it
may be effective in maintaining discipline but it is inferior to democracy because the
crucial element of liberty. Democracy enhances liberty. People have control over the
rulers. Like many other national leaders. Ambedkar choice too fell on parliamentary
form of democracy.

Social and Economic democracy

1. Ambedkar’s understanding of democracy goes deeper. He does not see it merely

as in political form. For him it is instrument of change it is a way of realizing
drastic changes in the social and economic spheres of society. His idea of
democracy is much more than just a scheme of government does not exist in
vacuum.
2. It operates within society. It’s usefulness depends upon its relationship with the
other spheres of society. Election, parties and parliaments are, after all formal
institutions of democracy. They can not be effective in an undemocratic
atmosphere. Political democracy means the principle of ‘one man one vote’
which indicates political equality.
3. Here are some experts, ‘one 26th of January1950, we are going to enter into a life
of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life
we will have inequality. In politics we will be recognizing the principle of ‘one man
one vote’ and ‘one vote one value’. In our social and economic life, we shall by
reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of
one man one value.
4. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradiction. How long shall we
continue to deny equality in our … economic life? If we continue to deny it for
long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril. We must
remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment or else those who
 suffer form inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which this
assembly has so laboriously built up”.
5. This he said in constituent assembly debate while cautioning on societal
conditions. In the Indian society. For instance, so long as caste barriers and caste-
based Inequalities exist, real democracy cannot operate. In this since democracy
means a spirit of fraternity and equality and not merely a political arrangement
Success of democracy in India can be ensured only by establishing a truly
democratic society.
6. Along with social dimension of democracy Ambedkar takes into consideration the
economic aspect also. He was greatly influenced by liberal thought Still he
appreciated the limitation of liberalism. Parliamentary democracy, in which he
had great faith, was also critically examined by him. Because parliamentary
democracy was based on liberalism.
7. It ignored economic inequalities and never concentrated upon the problems of
down trodden. Basides, the general tendency of the western type of
parliamentary democracies has been to ignore the issue of social and economic
equality.This analysis becomes very important in Indian context as parliamentary
democracy implies both ‘liberty’ and ‘equality’.
8. Indian Society was demanding freedom from British. But he was afraid that
freedom of the nation would not ensure real freedom for all people. Establishing
democracy in such a society which is dehumanized due to ages of social and
economic inequality would be nothing short of revolution. This would be
revolution in the social structure and attitudes of the people. Therefore,
Ambedkar supported idea of all round democracy i.e democratic society

Factors necessary for the successful operation of Democracy

1. For the successful functioning of the form of government, It is necessary that

certain other conditions must be fulfilled Political parties are necessary for the
effective working of parliamentary democracy. This will ensure existence of the
opposition which is very important It will ensure responsible government
Moreover respect and official status for the opposition means absence of
absolute power for the executive.
2. The other condition is a neutral and non-political civil service. This will be possible
only when appointments of civil servants are not made on the basis of political
consideration.
3. Success of democracy depends on many ethical and moral factors also. A
constitution is only set of rules. They become meaningful only when people in the
country develop conventions and traditions consistent with the constitution.
People and politician must follow certain norms in public life.
4. Moreover, there must also exist a sense of morality and conscientiousness in the
society. Low and legal remedies can never replace a voluntary sense of
responsibility. No amount of low can enforce morality. Norms of honest and
responsible behaviour must develop in the society.
 5. Democracy can be successful only when every citizen feels duty bound to fight
injustice even if that injustice does not put him into any difficulty personally. This
will happen when equality and brotherhood exist in society.
6. To make democracy successful in India. He suggest few other precautions.
Democracy means rule of the majority. But this should not result into tyranny of
majority. Majority must always respect the views of the minority. In India there is
a possibility that the minority community will always be a political minority also.
Therefore, it is very essential that the minority must feel free, safe and
secure.Otherwise, it will be very easy to convert democracy into a permanent rule
against minority.
7. Caste system could thus become the most difficult obstacle in the successful
functioning of democracy. Caste will create barriers in development of healthy
democratic traditions. This means that unless will achieve the task of establishing
democracy in the social field, mere political democracy cannot survive.

DEMOCRACY IS SUPPOSED TO

1. Promote equality among citizens;

2. Enhance the dignity of the individual;
3. Improve the quality of decision-making;
4. Provide a method to resolve conflicts; and
5. All room to correct mistakes.

Are these expectations realized under democracies? When we talk to people around us,
most of them support democracy against other alternatives, such as rule by a monarch
or military or religious leaders. But not so many of them would be satisfied with the
democracy in practice.So we face a dilemma: democracy is seen to be good in principle,
but felt to be not so good in its practice. This dilemma invites us to think hard about the
outcomes of democracy. Do we prefer democracy only for moral reasons? Or are there
some prudential reasons to support democracy too?

Over a hundred countries of the world today claim and practice some kind of
democratic politics: they have formal constitutions, they hold elections, they have
parties and they guarantee rights of citizens. While these features are common to most
of them, these democracies are very much different from each other in terms of their
social situations, economic achievements and their cultures. Clearly, what may be
achieved or not achieved, each of these democracies will be very different But is there
something that we can expect from every democracy, just because it is democracy.

Our interest in and fascination for democracy often pushes us into taking a position that
democracy can address all socio-economic and political problems. If some of our
expectations are not met, we start blaming the idea of democracy. Or, we start
doubting if we are living in a democracy. The first step towards thinking carefully about
the outcomes of democracy is just a form of government It can only create conditions
for achieving something. The citizens have to take advantage of those conditions and
achieve those goals. Let us examine some of the things we can reasonably expect from
democracy and examine the record of democracy.

Accountable, responsive and legitimate government :

1. There are some things that democracy must provide. In a democracy we are most
concerned with ensuring that people will have right to choose their rulers and
people will have control over the rulers. Whenever possible and necessary
citizens should be able to participate in decision-making that affects them all
Therefore, the most basic outcome of democracy should be that it produces a
government that is accountable to the citizens, and responsive to the needs and
expectations of the citizens.
2. Before we go into this question, we face another common question: Is the
democratic government efficient? Is it effective? Some people think that
democracy produces less effective government It is, of course, true that non-
democratic rulers do not have to bother about deliberation in assemblies or
worry about majorities and public opinion. So, they can be very quick and
efficient in decision-making and implementation. Democracy is based on the idea
of deliberation and negotiation. So, some delay is bound to take place. Does that
make democratic government inefficient?
3. Let us think in terms of costs. Imagine a government that may take decisions that
are not accepted by the people and may therefore, face problems. In contrast the
democratic government will take more time to follow procedures before arriving
at a decision. But because it has followed procedures, its decisions may be both
more acceptable to the people and more effective. So, the cost of time that
democracy pays is perhaps worth it
4. Now look at the other side, democracy ensures that decision-making will based
on norms and procedures. So, a citizen who wants to know if a decision was taken
through the correct procedures can find this out She has the right and the means
to examine the process of decision-making. This is known as transparency. This
factor is often missing from a non-democratic government Therefore, when we
are trying to find out the outcomes of democracy, it is right to expect democracy
to produce a government that follows procedures and is accountable to the
people. We can also expect that the democratic government develops
mechanisms for citizens to hold the government accountable and mechanisms for
citizens to take port in decision-making whenever they think fit.
5. If we wanted to measure democracies on the basis of this expected outcomes, we
need to look for the following practices and institutions: regular, free and fair
elections, open public debate on major policies and legislations, and citizens’ right
to information about the government and its functioning. The actual performance
of democracies shows a mixed record on this. Democracies have had greater
success in setting up conditions for open public debate. But most democracies fall
short of elections that provide a fair chance to everyone and in subjecting every
decision to public debate. Democratic government does not have a very good
record when it comes to sharing information with citizens. All one can say in
 favour of democratic regimes is that they are much better than any non-
democratic in these respects.
6. In substantive terms it may be reasonable to expect from democracy a
reasonable reaconable that is attentive to the needs and demands of the people
and largely free of corruption.The record of democracies is not impressive on
these two counts. Democracies often frustrate the demands of a majority of its
population. The routine tales of corruption are enough to convince us that
democracy is not free of this eviL At the same time, there is nothing to show that
non-democracies are less corrupt or more sensitive to the people.
7. There is one respect in which democratic government is certainly a legitimate
government It may be slow, less efficient, not always very responsive or clean.
But a democratic government is people’s own government. That is why there is
an overwhelming support for the idea of democracy all over the world. As the
accompanying evidence from South Asia show, that the support exists in
countries with democratic regimes. People wish to be ruled by representatives
elected by them. They also believe that democracy is suitable for their country.
Democracy’s ability to generate its own support is itself an outcome that cannot
be ignored.

Economic growth and development :

1. If democracies are expected to produce good government, then is it not fair to

expect that they would also produce development? Evidence shows that in
practice many democracies did not fulfil this expectation.
2. If we consider all democracies and all dictatorship for the fifty year between 1950
and 2000, dictatorship have slightly higher rate of economic growth.The inability
of democracy to achieve higher economic development worries us. But this alone
cannot be reason to reject democracy. As you have already studied in economics,
economic development depends on several factors: country’s population size,
global situation, cooperation from other countries economic priorities adopted by
the country, etc. However, difference in the rates of economic development
between less developed countries with dictatorship and democracies is negligible.
Overall we cannot say that democracy is a guarantee of economic development
But we can expect democracy not to lag behind dictatorship in this respect.
3. When we find such significant difference in the rates of economic growth
between countries under dictatorship and democracy, it is better to prefer
democracy as it has several other positive outcomes.

Reduction of inequality and poverty :

1. Perhaps more than development, it is reasonable to expect democracies to

reduce economic disparities. Even when a country achieves economic growth, will
wealth be distributed in such a way that all citizens of the country will have a
share and lead a better life? Is economic growth in democracies accompanied by
 increased inequalities among the people? Or do democracies lead to a just
distribution of goods and opportunities?
2. Democracies are based on political equality. All individuals have equal weight in
electing representatives. Parallel to the process of bringing individuals into the
political arena on an equal footing, we find growing economic inequalities.A small
number of ultra-rich enjoy a highly disproportionate share in the total income of
the country has been increasing. Those at the bottom of the society have very
little to depend upon. Their incomes have been declining. Sometimes they find it
difficult to meet their basic needs of life, such as food, clothing, house, education
and health.
3. In actual life, democracies do not appear to be very successful in reducing
economic inequalities. The poor constitute a large proportion of our votes and no
party will like to lose their votes. Yet democratically elected governments do not
appear to be as keen to address the question of poverty as you would expect
them too. The situation is much worse in some other countries. In Bangladesh,
more than half of its population lives in poverty. People in several poor countries
are now dependent on the rich countries even for food supplies.

Accommodation of social diversity :

1. Do democracies lead to peaceful and harmonious life among citizens? It will be a

fair expectation that democracy should produce a harmonious social life. We
have seen in the earlier chapters how democracies accommodate various social
divisions. We saw in the first chapter how Belgium has successfully negotiated
difference among ethnic populations. Democracies usually develop a procedure
to conduct their competition. This reduces the possibility of these tensions
becoming explosive or violent.
2. No society can fully permanently resolve conflicts among different groups. But we
can certainly learn to respect these differences and we can also evolve
mechanisms to negotiate the differences. Democracy is best suited to produce
this outcome. Non-democratic regimes often turn a blind eye to or suppress
internal social differences. Ability to handle social differences, divisions and
conflicts is thus a definite plus point of democratic regimes. But the example of
Sri Lanka reminds us that a democracy must fulfil two conditions in order to
achieve this outcome:
3. It is necessary to understand that democracy is not simple rule by majority
opinion. The majority so that governments function to represent the general
view. Majority and minority opinions are not permanent
4. It is also necessary that rule by majority does not become rule by majority
community in terms of religion or race or linguistic group, etc. Rule by majority
means that in case of every decision or in case election, different persons and
groups may and can form a majority. Democracy remains democracy only as long
as every citizen has a chance of being in majority at some point of time. If
someone is barred from being in majority on the basis of birth, then the
democratic rule ceases to be accommodative for that person or group.
Dignity and freedom of the citizens :

1. Democracy stands much superior to any other form of government in promoting

dignity and freedom of the individual Every individual wants to receive respect
from fellow beings. Often conflict arise among individuals because some feel that
they are not treated with due respect The passion for respect and freedom are
the basis of democracy.
2. Democracies throughout the work!have recognized this, at least in principle. This
has been achieved in various degree in various democracies. For societies which
have been built for long on the basis of subordination and domination, it is not a
simple matter to recognize that all individuals are equal.
3. Take the case of dignity of women. Most societies across the world were
historically male dominated societies. Long struggles by women have created
some sensitivity today that respect to and equal treatment of women are
necessary ingredients of a democratic society. That does not mean that women
are actually always treated with respect.
4. But once the principal is recognized it becomes easier for women to wage a
struggle against what is now unacceptable legally and morally. In a non-
democratic set up, this unacceptability would not have legal basis because the
principal of individual freedom and dignity would not have the legal and moral
force there. The same is true of caste inequalities.
5. Democracy in India has strengthened the claims of the disadvantaged and
discriminated castes for equal status and equal opportunity There are instances
still of caste-based inequalities and atrocities, but these lack the moral and legals
foundations. Perhaps it is the recognition that makes ordinary citizens values their
democratic rights.

CONCLUSION
Expectation from democracy also functions as the criteria for judging any democratic
county. What is most distinctive about democracy is that its examination never gets
over. As democracy passes one test, it produces another test As people get some
benefits of democracy, they ask for more and want to make democracy even better.
That is why, when we ask people about the way democracy functions, they will always
come up with more expectations, and many complaints. The fact that people are
complaining is itself a testimony to the success of democracy: it shows that people have
developed awareness and the ability to expect and to look critically at power holders
and the high and the mighty A public expression of dissatisfaction with democracy
shows the success of the democratic project it transforms people from the status of a
subject that of a citizen. Most votes make a difference to the way the government is run
and to their own self-interest.

CITIZENSHIP

1. Who is a citizen? In brief a citizen is a person who enjoys rights and performs his
duties in a State. Anyone who lives in India is not an Indian citizen. Because
 besides citizens, aliens also live here. Therefore, every inhabitant of the country is
not a citizen.A citizen is one who is a member of the State and who participates in
the process of government In a democratic society there must be two way traffic
between the citizens and the government All governments demand certain duties
from its citizens and all citizens have to observe those duties. But in turn, the
State must also admit some demands of its citizen on itself. They are called right
A person who is ruled by laws but who has no political rights is not a citizen.
2. People who live in States which are not democratic often do not enjoy political
right In such a State the government expects the subjects to perform their duties
to pay taxes, to obey laws do whatever else the government wants of them. But
they cannot question their rulers or ask them to explain their action. Politics in
these societies is like a one way traffic. The government tells the people what to
do and what not to do but does not listen to them in return. Only the rulers have
rights. The ruled have none and hence they are not citizens.

Democracy and Citizenship

Historically, the term ‘citizen’ was linked with the rise of democracy. The demand for
democratic government came up first in a few western societies, like England France
and the United States of America.

Democracy means that everybody should have political rights. When one has political
rights, the right to vote and the right to participate in decision-making on important
questions facing one’s society, one is a citizen. Of course, all these ideas did not grow up
all of a sudden. It took a long time for them to mature. They grew up gradually.
Universal suffrage a system in which literally everybody can vote – is a fairly recent
development The ideals of democracy made people fight for their rights against
monarchical government Many of the ideas of which democracy is made up are
accepted after great revolutions. For instance, after the revolution of 1789 France
became a republic. All citizens, it was said, were equal; they had equal rights.

Not surprisingly, the word ‘citizen was made popular by the French Revolution in 1789.
Later on, this word was used whenever democracies were set up.

1. At present it is common to treat people in democratic societies as citizens. It

means; above all that in relation to the government, the individuals are active
participants in the process of governance. They not only obey and listen to what
the government says the government must also listen to them in turn.
2. They have the right to express their opinion freely, to be consulted and to be
involved in the politics of the country. In democratic politics, the common human
being no longer is treated as an outsider.
3. A good citizen is one who is conscious of both rights and duties. For instance, the
right to vote is one of our most important rights and it is our duty also to exercise
the right to vote. If a person does not vote she or he cannot be considered a good
citizen, though otherwise she or he may be a good person.
 4. Good citizen should not only be conscious of their own rights alone, but also give
the government what is its due they should obey laws that are made by the
legislature and pay taxes.These are their duties towards the government But they
must also perform their duties to other citizens.And the most important duty of
every citizen is to respect the rights of others.
5. Our Constitution gives every one the right to practice one’s religion. Every citizen,
should practice religion in her/his own way; but in doing so one must respect the
right of other citizens to practice their religion in the way they like.
6. The qualities of good citizens must, therefore, include a consciousness of their
own right tolerance for others and respect for laws.
7. A democratic state particularly depends on the quality of its citizens. If citizens do
not take interests in politics, a democratic state might also gradually become
undemocratic.
8. Conversely democracy can be strengthened if the citizens have a clear view of
own rights and the rights of others; if they demand what they can claim from the
government; and if they know what the government can claim from them.
9. Many social evils cannot be fought only by the government passing laws against
them.
10.There is a need to create an intense social opinion against them. A society is after
all made by humans and not by laws.
11.One essential condition for a democratic state is that citizens must participate in
the governing process. The quality of democracy improves if citizen from all walks
of life participate in its activities and if they take interest in the basic processes of
making importuned decisions for their society. Democracy implies that the
decisions affecting the whole society should be taken as far as possible by the
whole society.

Understanding Citizenship in Detail

1. The idea of citizenship means that not only the government has some claims on
the citizen but the citizen also has claims on the government A government, after
all is an association like many others in the society. But it is an association of a
special kind
2. One can decide not to have anything to do with other associations. We may not
join any political party, a religious organization, a college or a cricket club.All
these associations have their special fields of activity and also their special
rules.We may not like their rules and decide not to join them. If we are not a
member of these groups, we need not observe their rules. But government is
different from all other associations. Its laws will apply to you whether we like
them or not.
3. Governments in modern society have much power to control the ordinary people.
This is something that cannot be escaped But there should be some mechanism
by which the people can also control the actions of a government According to
them, the best form of government is one which runs the country according to
 the wishes of its people. This type of government is called participatory
government or responsible government
4. The idea of citizenship is closely linked to the participation of people in
government This is how the ideas of democracy and citizenship are linked to each
other.

How one become citizen of India?

1. As we know, anyone living in the territory of a State is not automatically its

citizen. Many people living in India are not Indian citizens; they are aliens, Aliens
are – those who live on Indian Territory but who are citizens of other
countries.Students from other countries, particularly Asian and African countries,
often come to India to study. They sometimes live in India for several years. But
that does not make them citizens of India. Similarly, tourists from other countries
visit India. During their stay here they cannot claim all the rights that an Indian
citizen enjoys. Businessmen from other countries may come and stay here for
long periods. Diplomats who represent their countries also often do so. But they
are not citizens. They cannot vote in the elections, and would not have the same
rights that a citizen will enjoy.
2. Most of us do not have to try to become citizens of India. We are citizens simply
because our parents, whether both or at least one of them, are Indian citizens.
This kind of citizen is called a natural born citizen. Some countries have another
rule for being a natural born citizen. Anyone born in the territory of that country,
even if her or his parents are not citizens of that country, is automatically given
citizenship. But the Indian Constitution does not follow that rule.
3. There is a second form of citizenship which is called acquired or naturalized
citizenship. A person who is not a citizen of India can apply for Indian citizenship;
and when this is granted the person is called a naturalized citizen. The procedure
for acquiring citizenship is determined by a law made by the Parliament. To
acquire citizenship a person has to fulfil some conditions, like living in the country
for a fixed length of time or by marriage. A person can also lose her/his
citizenship in certain cases. For some types of legal offence, the government can
take away a person’s citizenship. Besides a person accepting the citizenship of
another country loses the citizenship of her or his own country.

Political Parties, Pressure Groups , Social and Political Elite

Political Party
Political party is a group of people who come together to contest election and hold
power in the government. They agree on some policies and programmes for the society
with a view to promote the collective good. Since there can be different views on what
is good for all, parties try to persuade people why their policies are better than others.
They seek to implement these policies by winning popular support through elections.
Thus, parties reflect fundamental political divisions in a society. Parties are about a part
of the society and thus involve partisanship.Thus a party is know by which part it stands
for, which policies it supports and whose interests it upholds.A political party has three
components:

1. The leaders,
2. The active member, and
3. The followers.

Political parties are one of the most visible institutions in a democracy.For most
ordinary citizens, democracy is equal to political parties. If we travel to remote parts of
our country and speak to the less educated citizens, we could come across people who
may not know anything about our Constitution or about the nature of our government
But chances are that they would know something about our political parties. At the
same time this visibility does not mean popularity. Most people tend to be very critical
of political parties. They tend to blame parties for all that is wrong with our democracy
and our political life. Parties have become identified with social and political divisions.

Therefore, it is natural to ask- do we need political parties at all? About hundred years
ago there were few countries of the world that had any political party. Now there are
few that do not have parties.

Functions of Political Parties

What does a political party do? Basically, political parties fill political offices and exercise
political power. Parties do so by performing a series of functions:

1. Parties contest elections. In most democracies, elections are fought mainly

among the candidates put up by political parties.Parties select their candidates in
different ways. In some countries, such as the USA, members and supporters of a
party choose its candidates. Now more and more countries are following this
method In other countries like India,top partyleaders choose candidates for
contesting elections.
2. Parties put forward different policies and programmes and the voters choose
from them. Each of us may have different opinions and views on what policies are
suitable for the society. But no government can handle such a large variety of
views. In a democracy, a large number of similar opinions have to be grouped
together to provide a direction in which policies can be formulated by the
governments. This is what the parties do. A party reduces a vast multitude of
opinions into a few basic positions which it supports. A government is expected to
base its policies on the line taken by the ruling party.
3. Parties play a decisive role in making laws for a country. Formally, laws are
debated and passed in the legislature. But since most of the members belong to a
party, they go by the direction of the party leadership, irrespective of their
personal opinions.
4. Parties form and run governments. As we noted, the big policy decisions are
taken by political executive that comes from the political parties. Parties recruit
 leaders, train them and then make them ministers to run the government in the
way they want
5. Those parties that lose in the elections play the role of opposition to the parties in
power, by voicing different views and criticizinggovernment for its failures or
wrong policies.Opposition parties also mobilize opposition to the government.
6. Parties shape public opinion. They raise and highlight issues. Parties have lakhs of
member and activists spread all over the country. Many of the pressure groups
are the extensions of parties among different sections of society. Parties
sometimes also launch movement for the resolution of problems faced by people.
Often opinions in the society crystallize on the lines parties take.
7. Parties provide people access to government machinery and welfare schemes
implemented by governments. For an ordinary citizen it is easy to approach a
local party leader than a government officer. That is why they feel close to parties
even when they do not fully trust them. Parties have to be responsive to people’s
needs and demands. Otherwise people can reject those parties in the next
elections.

Why We Need Political Parties?

1. This list of function in a sense answers the question asked above: we need
political parties because they perform all these functions. But we still need to ask
why modem democracies cannot exist without political parties. We can
understand the necessity of political parties by imagining a situation without
parties.
2. Every candidate in the elections will be making many promises to the people
about any major policy change. The government may be formed but its utility will
remain ever uncertain. Elected representatives will be accountable to their
constituency for what they do in the locality. But no one will be responsible for
how the country will be run.
3. We can also think about it by looking at the non-party based elections to the
panchayats in many states. Although, the parties do not contest formally, it is
generally noticed that the villages get split into more than one faction, each of
which puts up a ‘panel’ of its candidates. This is exactly what the party does.That
is the reason we find political parties in almost all countries are big or small old or
new, developed or developing.
4. The rise of political parties is directly linked to the emergence of representative
democracies. As we have seen, large societies need representative democracy. As
societies became large and complex, they also needed some agency to gather
different views on various issues and to present these to the government They
needed some ways, to bring various representatives together so that a
responsible government could be formed They needed a mechanism to support
or restrain the government, make policies, justify or oppose them. Political
parties fulfil these needs that every representative government has. We can say
that parties are a necessary condition for a democracy.
How many parties should we have?

1. In a democracy any group of citizens is free to from a political party. In this formal
sense, there are a large number of political parties in each country. More than
750 parties are registered with the Election Commission of India. But not all these
parties are serious contenders in the elections. Usually only a handful of parties
are effectively in the race to win elections and form the government So the
question then is: how many major or effective parties are good for a democracy?
2. In some countries, only one party is allowed to control and run the government
These are called one-party system. In China, only the Communist Party is allowed
to rule. Although, legally speaking, people are free to form political parties, it
does not happen because the electoral system does not permit free competition
for power. We cannot consider one-party system as a good option because this is
not a democratic option. Any democratic system must allow at lest two parties to
compete in elections and provide a fair change for the competing parties to come
to power.
3. In some countries, power usually changes between two main parties. Several
other parties may exist, contest elections and win a few seats in the national
legislatures. But only two main parties have a serious chance of winning majority
of seats to form government. Such a party system is called two-party system. The
United States of America and United Kingdom are examples of two-party system.
4. If several parties compete for power, and more than two parties have a
reasonable chance of coming to power either on their own strength or in alliance
with others, we call it a multi-party system. Thus in India, we have a multi-party
system. In this system, the government is formed by various parties coming
together in a coalition. Even several parties in a multi-party system join hands for
the purpose of contesting elections and winning power. It is called an alliance or a
front For example, in India there were three such major alliances in 2004
parliamentary elections -the National Democratic Alliance, the United Progressive
Alliance and the Left Front The multi-party system often appears very messy and
leads to political instability. At the same time, this system allows a variety of
interests and opinions to enjoy political representation.
5. So, which of these is better? Perhaps the best answer to this very common
question is that this is not a very good question. Party system is not something
any country can choose. It evolves over a long time, depending on the nature of
society, its social and regional divisions, its history of politics and its system of
elections. These cannot be changed very quickly. Each country develops a party
system that is conditioned by its special circumstances. For example, if India has
evolved a multi-party system, it is because the social and geographical diversity in
such a large country is not easily absorbed by two or even three parties. No
system is ideal for all countries and all situations.
NATIONAL POLITICAL PARTIES

1. Democracies that follow a federal system all over the work!tend to have two
kinds of political parties: parties that are present in only one of the federal units
and parties that are present in several or all units of the federation. This is the
case in India as welL There are some countrywide parties, which are called
‘national parties’. These parties have units in various states. But by and large, all
these units follow the same policies, programmes and strategy that is decided at
the national level.
2. Every party in the country has to register with the Election Commission. While the
Commission treats all parties equally, it offers some special facilities to large and
established parties.Which are given a unique symbol -only the official candidates
of that party can use that election symbol. Parties that get this privilege and some
other special facilities are ‘recognized’ by the Election Commission for this
purpose. That is why these parties are called, ‘recognized political parties’.The
Election Commission has laid down detailed criteria of the proportion of votes
and seats that a party must get in order to be a recognized party. A party that
secures at lest six per cent of the total votes in an election to the Legislative, two
seats is recognized as a State party. A party that secures at least six per cent of
the total votes in Lok Sabha elections or Assembly elections in four States and
wins at lest four seats in the Lok Sabha is recognized as a National party.
3. Over the last three decades, the number and strength of these parties has
expanded This made the Parliament of India politically more and more diverse.
No one national party is able to secure on its own a majority in Lok Sabha. As a
result, the national parties are compelled to form alliance with State parties.
Since1996, nearly every one of the State parties has got an opportunity to be a
part of one or the other national level coalition government.This has contributed
to the strengthening of federalism and democracy in our country.

Challenges before political parties :

1. We have seen how crucial political parties are for the working of democracy.
Since parties are the most visible face of democracy, it is natural that people
blame parties for whatever is wrong with the working of democracy.All over the
world people express strong dissatisfaction with the failure of political parties to
perform their functions welL This is the case in our country too. Popular
dissatisfaction and criticism has focused on four problem areas in the working of
political parties. Political parties need to face and overcome these challenges in
order to remain effective instruments of democracy.
2. The first challenge is lack of internal democracy within parties. All over the
world there is a tendency in political parties towards the concentration of power
in one or few leaders at the top. Parties do not hold organizational meeting, and
do not conduct internal elections regularly. Ordinary members of the party do not
get sufficient information on what happens inside the party. They do not have the
means or the connections needed to influence the decisions.As a result the
 leaders assume greater power to make decisions in the name of the party.Since
few leaders exercise paramount power in the party, those who disagree with the
leadership find it difficult to continue in the party. More than loyalty to party
principles and politics, personal loyalty to the leader becomes more important.
3. The second challenge of dynastic succession is related to the first one. Since
most political parties do not practice open and transparent procedures for their
functioning, there are very few ways for an ordinary worker to rise to the top in a
party. Those who happen to be the leaders are in a position of unfair advantage
to favour people close to them or even their family members. In many parties,
the top positions are always controlled by members of one family.This is also bad
for democracy, since people who do not have adequate experience or popular
support come to occupy positions of power. This tendency is present in some
measure all over the world, including in some of the older democracies.
4. The third challenge is about the growing role of money and muscle power in
parties, especially during elections. Since parties are focused only on winning
elections, they tend to use short cuts to win elections. They tend to nominate
those candidates who have or can raise lots of money. Rich people and
companies who give funds to the parties tend to have influence on the policies
and decisions of the party. In some cases, parties support criminals who can win
elections. Democrats all over the world are worried about the increasing role of
rich people and big companies in democratic politics.
5. The fourth challenge is that very often parties do not seem to offer a
meaningful choice to the voters. In order to offer meaningful choice, parties
must be significantly different In recent years there has been a decline in the
ideological differences among parties in most part of the world For example, the
difference between the Labour Party and the Conservative Party in Britain is very
little. They agree on more fundamental aspects but differ only in details on how
policies are to be framed and implemented In our country too, the differences
among all the major parties on the economic policies have reduced Those who
want really different policies have no option available to them. Sometimes people
cannot even elect very different leaders either, because the same set of leaders
keep shifting form one party to another.

How can parties be reformed?

In order to face these challenges, political parties need to be reformed The question is:
Are political parties willing, what has prevented them from reforming so far? If they are
not willing, is it possible to force them to reform? Citizens all over the world face this
question. In a democracy, the final decision is made by leaders who represent political
parties. People can replace them, but only by other set party leaders. If all of them do
not wish to reform, how can anyone force them to change?

Let us look at some of the recent efforts and suggestions in our country to reform
political parties and its leaders:
 1. The Constitution was amended to prevent elected MLAs and MPs from changing
parties. This was done because many elected representatives were indulging in
defection in order to become ministers or for cash rewards. Now the law says
that if any MLA or MP changes parties, he or she will lose the seat in the
legislature.This new law has helped bring defection down. At the same time has
made any dissent even more difficult MPs and MLAs have to accept whatever the
party leaders decide.
2. The Supreme Court passed an order to reduce the influence of money and
criminals. Now, it is mandatory for every candidate who contests elections to file
an affidavit giving details of his property and criminal cases pending against
him.This information is now available to the public. But there is no system to
check if the information given by the candidates is true. As yet we do not know if
it has led to decline in the influence of the rich and to decline in the influence of
the rich and the criminals.
3. The Election Commission passed an order making it necessary for political parties
to hold their organizational elections and file their income tax returns. The parties
have started doing so but sometimes it is mere formality. It is not clear if this step
has led to greater internal democracy in political parties.

Suggestions made to reform political parties :

1. A law should be made to regulate the internal affairs of political parties. It should
be made compulsory for political parties to maintain a register of its members to
follow its own constitution, to have an independent. authority, to act as a judge in
case of party disputes, to hold open election to the highest posts.
2. It should be made mandatory for political parties to give a minimum number of
tickets, about one-third, to women candidates.Similarly, there should be a quota
for women in the decision-making bodies of the party.
3. There should be state funding of elections. The government should give parties
money to support their election expenses. This support could be given in kind:
petrol paper, telephone etc. Or it could be given in cash on the basis of the votes
secured by the party in the last election.

There are two other ways in which political parties can be reformed

1. One, people can put pressure on political parties.This can be done through
petitions, publicity and agitations. Ordinary citizens, pressure groups and
movement and the media can play an important role in this. If political parties
feel that they would lose public support by not taking up reforms, they would
become more serious about reforms.
2. Two, political parties can improve if those who want to join political parties are
pro- reform. The quality of democracy depends on the degree of public
participation. It is difficult to reform politics if ordinary citizens do not take part in
it and simply criticize it from the outside. The problem of bad politics can be
solved by more and better politics. But we must be very careful about legal
 solutions to political problems. Over-regulation of political parties can be counter-
productive.This would force all parties to find ways to cheat the law. Besides,
political parties will not agree to pass a law that people not like.

PRESSURE GROUPS
Pressure Group is any group that attempts to influence legislative or governing
institutions on behalf of its own special interests or interests of a larger public that it
represents. They influence Governments decision in their favour without participating in
politics as such. It acts as a liaison between government and its members.

1. Prof Finer characterized them as anonymous empires. To Lambert these are

unofficial government which implies that no government can run without them
into consideration.It organizes itself around a common interest, of a section of
population.
2. There are protective pressure groups, i.e., those protecting the interest of the
group like FICCI.
3. On the other hand promotional pressure groups tries to promote their interest
like caste association, trade unions etc.
4. Pressures group act behind the seen as they do not try to capture power. They
support their candidate, parties in elections to ensure winning candidate backed
by them represent their interest in related bodies. They give collective expression
to the groups demand and also ensure thatthe demand should be met. They
change their political alliance quickly as to suit their conditions.
5. Pressure group’s demands can be functional or dysfunctional for society.
Presences of anomic pressure groups like terrorist organizations have negative
impact Thus it can be said that presence of pressure group shows pluralism in
political system which can be functional as well as dysfunctional.

Role of pressure groups in democracy

1. According to Anthony Giddens, pressure groups are the carriers of democracy.

With the increase in industrialization division of labour also increases, thus
emerged various sections with specialized interest But modern democracy
demands harmonization of interest due to which minority or sectional interest
tend to get ignored Pressure groups represent this interest
2. Its presence shows existence of pluralism making power dispersed and
decentralized into the political system.
3. Pressure groups also aggregate and articulate interest, thus making government
aware of public opinion and interest and working for them.
4. The participation of all sections in governance is indirectly achieved
5. Pressure groups can work in anonymity out of the glare of public. So they may
provide public censure.
 6. They may use imitative, educative, non-formal methods to protect and promote
their interests.

But in modern democracy they can be dysfunctional too, as by representing sectional

interest at times other interests gets marginalized It may be possible that sectional
interest goes contrary to national interest. Certain economic pressure groups have also
emerged using illegal methods e.g. terrorists organizations. Thus, being inevitable
phenomena in democracy pressure groups have strengthened and weakened
democracy side by side.

There are many pressure groups in India. But, they are not developed to the same
extent as in the US or the western countries like Britain, France, and Germany and so
on. The pressure groups in India can be broadly classified into the following
categories.

1. Business Groups : The business groups include a large number of industrial and
commercial bodies.They are then most sophisticated the most powerful and the
largest of all pressure groups in India.They include:
 Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), major
constituents are the Indian Merchants Chamber of Bombay Indian Merchants
Chamber of Calcutta and South Indian Chamber of Commerce of Madras. It
broadly represents major industrial and trading interest.
 Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), major
constituents are the Bengal Chamber of Commerce of Calcutta and Central
Commercial Organization of Delhi.
 Federation of All India Foodgrain Dealers Association (FAIFDA). FAIFDA is the sole
representative of the grain dealers.
 All India Manufacturers Organization (AIMO). AIMO raises the concerns of the
medium-sized industry.
2. Trade Unions:The trade unions voice the demands of the industrial workers.They
are also known as labour groups.A peculiar feature of trade union of India is that
they are associated either directly or indirectly with different political
parties.They include:
 All India Trade Union Congress (INTUC) – affiliated to the CPI;
 Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) – affiliated to the Congress (1);
 Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS) – affiliated to the CPM, and
 Hind Mazdoor Parishad (HMP) – affiliated to the BJP.
3. Agrarian Groups : The agrarian groups represent the farmers and the agricultural
labour class. They
include :
 Bharatiya Kisan Union (under the leadership of Mahendra Singh Tikait, in the
wheat belt of North India)
 All Indian Kisan Sabha (the oldest and the largest agrarian group)
 Revolutionary Peasants Convention (organized by the CPM in 1967 which gave
birth to the Naxalbari Movement)
 Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (Gujarat)
 R.V.Sangham (led by CN Naidu in Tamil Nadu)
 Hind Kisan Panchayat (controlled by the Socialists)
 All India Kisan Sammelan (led by Raj Narain)
 United Kisan Sabha (controlled by the CPM)
4. Professional Associations : These are associations that raise the concerns and
demands of doctors, lawyers, journalists and teachers. Despite various
restrictions, these associations pressurize the government by various methods
including agitations for the improvement of their service conditions. They include:
 Indian Medical Association (IMA).
 Bar Council of India (BCI)
 Indian Federation of Working Journalists (IFWJ)
 Progressive Students University and College Teachers (AIFUCT).
5. Student Organizations: Various unions have been formed to represent the
student community. However, these unions, like the trade unions, are also
affiliated to various political parties. These are:
 Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) (affiliated to BJP)
 All India Students Federation (AISE) (affiliated to CPI)
 National Students Union of India (NSUI) (affiliated to Congress (I))
 Progressive Students Union (PSU) (affiliated to CPM).
6. Religious Organizations:The organizations based on religion have come to play an
important role in Indian politics.They represent the narrow communal interest.
They include:
 Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS)
 Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)
 Jamaat-e-Islami
 Ittehad-ul-Mussalmeen
 Anglo-India Association
 Associations of the Roman Catholics
 All-India Conference of India Christians
 Parsi Central Associations
 Shiromani Akali Dal.
“TheShiromani Akali Dal should be regarded as more of religious pressure groups
than a political party in view of the fact that it has been concerned more with the
mission of saving the Sikh community from being absorbed into the ocean of
Hindu society than with fighting for the cause of a Sikh homeland”.
7. Caste Groups: Like religion, caste has been an important factor in Indian politics.
The competitive politics in many states of the Indian Union is in fact the politics of
caste rivalries: Brahmin versus Non-Brahmin in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra,
Rajputs versus Jat in Rajasthan, Kainmas versus Reddy in Andhra, Ahir versus Jat
in Haryana, Baniya Brahmin versus Patidars in Gujarat, Kayastha versus Rajputs in
Bihar, Nair versus Ezhavas in Kerala and Lingayats versus Okkaligas in Karnataka.
Some in the caste-based organizations are:
 Nadar Caste Association in Tamil Nadu
 Marwari Association
 Harijan Sevak Sangh
 Kshatriya Maha Sabha in Gujarat
 Vanniyakul Kshatriya Sangham
 Kayastha Sabha.
8. Tribal Organizations:The tribal organizations are active in MP, Chhattisgarh,
Bihar, Jharkhand West Bengal and the North Eastern States of Assam, Manipur,
and Nagaland and so on. Their demands range from reforms to that of secession
from India and some of them are involved in insurgency activities. The tribal
organizations include:
 National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN)
 Tribal National Volunteers (TNU) in Tripura
 People’s Liberation Army in Manipur
 All-India Jharkhand
 Tribal Sangh of Assam
 United Mizo Federal Organization.
9. Linguistic Groups: Language has been so important factor in Indian politics that it
became the main basis for the reorganization of states. The language along with
caste, religion and tribe has been responsible for the emergence of political
parties as well as pressure groups.Some of the linguistic groups are :
 Tamil Sangh
 Anjuman Tarrak-i-Urdu
 Andhra Maha Sabha
 Hindi Sahitya Sammelan
 Nagarik Pracharani Sabha
 Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha.
10.Ideology Based Groups:In more recent times, the pressure groups are formed to
pursue a particular ideology, i.e., a cause, a principle or a programme. These
groups include:
 Environmental protection groups like Narmada Bachao Andolan and Chipko
Movement
 Democratic rights organizations
 Civil liberties associations
 Gandhi Peace Foundation
 Woman rights organizations.
11.Anomic Groups:Almond and Powell observed:”By anomic pressure groups we
mean more or less a spontaneous breakthrough into the political system from the
society such as riots, demonstrations, associations and bureaucratic elite, over-
whelmed bythe problem of economic development and scarcity of resources
available to them, inevitably acquires a technocratic and anti-political frame of
mind, particularistic demands of whatever kinds are denied legitimacy. As a
consequence interest groups are alienated from the political system”. Some of
the anomic pressure groups are:
 All India Sikh Student’s Federation
 Nava Nirman Samiti of Gujarat
 Naxalite Groups
 Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF)
  All Assam Student’s Union
 United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA)
 Dal Khalsa.

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ELITES

Elite are the most influential and prestigious stratum in a society. The ‘elite’ are those
persons who are recognized as outstanding leaders in given field Thus, there are
political, religious, scientific, business and artistic elite.

1. Wright Mills has described them as “those who make decisions having major
consequences, who are able to realize their will even if other resist, and who have
the most of what there is to havemoney, power and prestige”.
2. Parry Geraint has defined elite as “small minorities who play an exceptionally
influential part in the affairs of society in specific fields”.
3. Nadel maintains that elite are “those who have an influence over the fate of the
society because of their superiority”. The members of an elite group have
important influence in shaping the values and attitudes held by their segment of
society.

Ram Ahuja has described elite through four features

1. A dominant group which possess distin-ctiveness and exclusiveness,

2. The term does not apply to any one person but refers to a plurality, a collectivity
of persons, however small it may be,
3. This identifiable collectivity has certain attributes and skills which give it not only
a certain superiority but also power of decision-making and influencing others.
4. Elite is a relative term. A group is identified as an elite group in a particular field in
which it is ‘power exerciser, influential, or commands ‘excellence’, but in other
groups, these elite may be considered as ‘ordinary’ members.

On this basis, the term ‘political elite’ maybe defined as “a group of high stratum
decision-makers in political culture or concrete political structure which monopolizes
political power, influences major political policies and occupies all important posts of
political command”. If we were to operationalise this term, we could say, political elite
include those who are elected/ nominated to central and state legislatures, who occupy
important position in national or state-level political parties, individuals who do not hold
any formal positions either in the government or in political parties but are still
considered as persons of great political prestige and power because they control
powers exercisers e.g., Gandhi, Jaya Prakash Narayan.

Elite in Post-Independence India

According to Ram Ahuja growth of political elite can be analyzed in different phases.
Political elite can be analyzed by classifying growth of the political elite into five phases:
1. Immediately after independence phase i.e.,1947 to April 1952, in which there was
no longer any struggle between the people and the government and in which
though the interests of the people and the power elite were one and indivisible
(i.e., rebuilding the society),the latter were more preoccupied with the problems
of restoration of law and order after partition, refuge resettlement, maintenance
of communal peace, and the controversy over the redistribution of territories
between various states.
2. Consolidation phase (i.e., April 1952 to March 1962 or MPs, MLAs and party
office-holders elected in April 1952 and April 1957 elections), in which the
political elite worked for the economic uplift and social development through the
Five Year Plans.
3. Chaotic phase i.e., April 1962 to March 1971or individuals elected in April 1962
and March 1967 elections, in which non-congress and coalition governments
came into power in several states affecting its interstate and state-centre
relations.
4. Authoritarian phase (i.e., March 1971 to November 1989 or individuals elected in
March 1971, March 1977, January 1980, December 1984, and November 1989
elections) in which one person was catapulted to the position of supreme
national leadership, first Indira Gandhi for 16 years (excluding period from march
1977 to January 1980) and then Rajiv Gandhi for five years and the power-holders
came to believe in the personality cult, and in which all plans for change and
development of society were centralized.
5. Multiple-party phase i.e., December 1989 till April1999 in which except in
Narsimha Rao’s period multiple hands to rule the country on a common
programme basis (V.P. Singh ministry for llmonths, Chandra Shekhar ministry for
about eight months, Atal Bihari Vajpayee ministry for 13 days. United Front
governments of Deve Gowda for 11 months and I.K. Gujral for one year and BJP
led government of A.B. Vajpayee).
6. In the first phase those were the elite who had a stable economic background
were highly educated mostly belonged to the upper castes, and were committed
to societal interests. Their socio-political ideology was based on nationalism,
liberalism and religio-cultural reforms. This first generation of power-wielders in
free India had earned their reputation for courage, vision and action, and
acquired their charisma before they stepped into office as inheritors of political
power and earned it more through functioning in office.
7. The elite in the second (consolidation) phase, particularly those elected in the
1952 elections, some of whom had only part-time interests in politics. They
wanted rewards in the form of a political office for participating in the national
struggle for independence.These elite caused a certain amount of disequilibrium
in the beginning in their party structures but their pressures for active
participation in politics were pitched in such a low key that they were soon
integrated in their party systems.
8. Then came the 1957 elections when the long established dominance of the so-
called political suffers was broken and political power was placed in the hands of
a new breed of elite who were either petty landholders or traders, businessmen,
 professional persons, small industrialists or social workers. These elite were not
as highly politicized as their older counter parts. They thought that since they
could trust the integrity of old professional politicians, they need not concern
themselves quite so directly with politics.
9. Over the years, yet newer elite further down the social scale appeared in the
1962 elections representing the intermediate and lower castes, middle-class
professions, small farmers, industrial workers, or even obscure religious and
social sects, to name a few, seeking entry into the political decision-making
processes. Though these elite came to seek a greater role in policy formulation,
the older elite still retained their influence. There was thus toleration on the part
of the new and accommodation on the part of the old elite. Both old and new
elite revised their values to fit situations and establish new relationships. This
type of interaction between the old and the new elite implies a dilution of the
pure force theory group of elite or that the position of the old elite depended
upon some sort of bargain. We can thus say that change in the elite structure up
to 1967 was slow and ‘peaceful’, not involving any ‘conflict’ in Marxian
terminology.
10.In the 1967, 1971, 1977, 1980, 1984, 1989, 1991, 1996 and 1998 elections,
emerged the elite amongst whom many were found to have politics as their
major source of livelihood According to Ram Ahuja, they believed more in using
the ties of kinship, caste and language to smoothen the way through the corridors
of power. They were blind to the practicalities of the plans and believed in
seeking cooperation of the masses by coining attractive slogans and speaking
half-truths.They posed as democrats; even their slogans were democratic but
their actions belied their utterances. Democracy as a way of life was foreign to
their nature and nurture.
11.According to Ahuja, ideologically, there were four types of elite functioning in
1967-1971,1971-1989, and 1989-1999 phases: traditionalists, rationalists,
moderates and synthetics.The second and the third types had two sub-variations,
12.Those who reflected secular but vested national ideology, and
13.Those that professed a neo-secular and vested parochial ideology.
14.Since these elite with different ideologies functioned within the party, the
variation in their ideologies led to segmentation of the party which affected the
functioning of both the party and its elite at various levels. The new political elite
who were brought into power first in December 1989 election and then in May
1996and March 1998 elections got public votes not because of their rationalist
liberal ideologies or because their radicalism was greatly appreciated but because
people wanted to throw out the government of the day dominated by one
political party for about four decades and also the weak political front. United
Front government which was based on factions. Even the BJP led government of
A.B. Vajpayee which came in power in March 1998 proved unstable because of
constant threats from 3 or 4 of its constituent parties.
15.Using this description for comparing the ‘new’ elite with the ‘old’ elite and for
identifying the present structure of political elite, we could say,
 16.The ‘intellectual committed politics’ of first phase were replaced by ‘mediocre,
uncommitted partisan’ elite in the following phases.
17.The last one decade political elite are characterized not only by a plurality of
structural background but ideologically also they manifest varied shades.
18.Their political affiliations are guided more by their particularists’ loyalty rather
than by their ideological commitment.
19.The old elite wielded power independently, i.e., in their own right as intellectuals,
whereas the present day elite are incapable of exercising independent political
power.
20.Barring a few activity, most of the present elite do not believe in militating against
the status quo. As such, the task of social engineering becomes far more difficult
for those few activist revolutionary elite who are really committed to
modernization and believe in economic radicalism, political democratization and
social growth.
21.Referring to changing elite structure Yogendra Singh has stated that “Among the
political elite, there existed a high degree of cultural and status homogeneity
before Independence.All of them came from upper castes and had an urban,
middle-class background of English education. The top group was exposed to
foreign culture and was educated there; hence their self-image in terms of
expected roles was also that of a generalist rather than a specialist Following
independence, this pattern of elite composition has considerably changed”
According to Yogendra Singh,
22.There is increasing influence of rural-based political leaders;
23.There is slight decrease in the influence of leaders drawn from various
professions,
24.There is significant increase in the number of persons belonging to the middle
class;
25.There is greater articulation of regional and interest-oriented goals in political
cultural ideologies, and
26.There is slight breakdown in the exclusiveness or upper castes to the elite
position. And what was stated by Yogendra Singh 25 years ago is true even today.

According to Ram Ahuja, in India, the govern-ing’ elite at a higher political culture base
(say national level) are recruited not from the ‘non-governing’ elite at the same level
but from the governing elite functioning at a lower political cultural base (say state,
district or block levels). These elite of lower political base are found holding important
posts in state legislatures or state political parties, etc., before becoming office-holders
at the higher political base. Once these elite rise from state or district level they never
go back to the ok!level but continue to function at the higher political level as long as
they remain active in politics.This, however, does not mean that they cease to take
interest in politics at the level from which they have moved up in the hierarchy. This
means, there is no circulation but only an upward movement of the elite. However, if
Pareto’s theory refers to a process in which one member of the elite group is replaced
by another within the group of governing elite, we may concede that his theory does
explain the political phenomenon of ‘movement of the elite’ in the context of our
society also. Bottomore maintains that both conceptions are to be found in Pareto’s
work, although the former predominates.

According to Ahuja there are two types of movements (not circulations) :

1. Movement from lower to higher strata of governing elite both functioning at

macro-level and
2. Movement from sub-category functioning at micro-structural level to sub-
category functioning at macrostructural level.

In the former, he found circulation between ‘oligarchic’ (dominant) and ‘subjacent’

(dominated) elite and between ‘radical activists and ‘passive’ activists.Activists
functioning at micro-level ultimately joined the ranks of activists at the macro-level with
the result that some of the activists already functioning at this level were deprived of
their monopoly of power. This elite mobility may be explained in terms of,

1. The rise of new political interests, and

2. The rise of new elite with more manipulating qualities.

Therefore, both individual and structural factors (caste etc.) are important in the social
ascent or social
descent of the elite. Schumpeter also believed that both the individual qualities and the
social factor are important in the circulation of elite.

The Marxian approach, which is basically non-elitist, views the relations between the
elite (privileged class which commands power and wealth) and non-elite (classes which
do not possess either of these) as based on conflict, in which effort is made to
overthrow the ‘power elite’ to occupy its position. Ram Ahuja in his study revealed that
the process of overthrowing the elite in power and succeeding them is not always based
on conflict, but that it involves manipulation, toleration, accommodation, compromise
and bargain too. It could, therefore, be maintained that we can neither draw from
Pareto’s theory of ‘circulation of elite’, nor from Karl Marx’s theory of ‘class struggle’ to
understand the changing character of political elite in India. We have to use different
approach for analyzing the recruitment and the changing structure of elite in India.

Regionalism and Decentralization of Power in India

Regionalism in India
Regionalism is a pre-independence phenomenon. It became predominant in post-
independence period The politics of regionalism started with the implementation of
constitutional reform under government of India Acts of 1909, 1919 and 1935. The
establishment and role ofJustice Party in Madras, and to a lesser extent, of Akali Dal in
Punjab in pre-independence period are examples of emerging regionalism in India.
After independence there are four major landmarks in the development of regional
politics.

1. After independence democratic form of government was established Its main aim
was nation building on the principles of democracy, secularism, national unity and
social justice. All parts of the country wanted a fair deal in nation-building. They
started competing with each other for their development. Anything short of
expectation led to disenchantment and it resulted in the emergence of regional
politics.
2. There was integration of the Princely States. Small states were integrated with
the big states. People continued to nurse loyalties to old territorial units. This was
the most important factor for the success of Princes in elections. The Princes
often received overwhelming support in their former territories in the newly
created states and relatively much less in other parts of the same state.
3. Reorganization of states on linguistic basis also played a very vital role in the
development of regional politics. Twenty eight states were reshaped and reduced
to 14 states along with centrally administered territories. Later new states were
created then for example Bombay was divided into Gujarat and Maharashtra,
Punjab and Haryana. But these states were not constituted entirely on linguistic
basis. Many other factors like ethnic-cum-economic considerations: (Nagaland
Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura), (Haryana and Punjab), language-cum-culture,
(Maharashtra and Gujarat); historical and political factor, (U.P. and Bihar);
integration of princely states in and need for viable groupings (M. P. and
Rajasthan); language and social distinctiveness (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Mysore,
Bengal and Orissa), have played a decisive role in the composition of the Indian
federation.
4. In spite of all these considerations, language remained the most important factor
in the reorganization of states. It became such an important force in the context
of regionalism that linguistic regionalism gained ground in Indian politics.
5. Another factor which gave rise to regional and parochial tendencies in the
country was the personal and selfish ends of politicians. Immediately, after
independence the struggle for power started among some parties. For enhancing
their own authority and prestige, the regional and state leaders did not hesitate
to weaken the authority of the centre or in some cases of states. The creation of
more states meant more governors, chief ministers, M.L.A.’s etc. The professional
politicians explored the narrow and sectarian sentiments of ignorant masses for
fulfilling their personal and selfish ends. Keeping these landmarks in mind let us
now examine the bases or regional and state politics.

Basis of Regionalism
Regionalism is a multi-dimensional phenomenon. Its bases are varied Here we well
discuss the geographical historical cultural economic and politico-administrative bases
of regionalism.
1. Geographical Basis : Usually people relate their regional identity of certain
specific geographical boundaries. After independence integration of Princely
States resulted in the merger of small states into new big states. The loyalties of
citizens were torn between old territorial boundaries and new territorial
structures. As pointed our earlier this was the major factor responsible for the
success of princes in elections particularly when they contested from their former
territories in the newly created states. However, it would be wrong to over
estimate the importance of geographical boundaries. It is true that memories of
old geographical boundaries of princely states still haunt the people and are
exploited by political leaders but it can hardly be denied that they are yielding
place to new and bigger territorial identities like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and
Orissa.
2. Historical and Social Bases : Historical and social bases constitute the bedrock of
the politics of regionalism. Several components in this category are not only
important individually but also in conjunction with each other.
 History supported regionalism with cultural heritage, folklore, myths and
symbolism. The most striking example is that of Dravida Kazhagam and the
Dravida Munetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu and Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. But
history cannot be considered as the most important basis of regionalism.
Economic and political factors have combined with history to generate
regionalism. This can again be seen in the change in the stand of DMK from
secession to one of autonomy within the federal framework of the Constitution.
 Language is perhaps the most important mark of group identification. Language
expresses the shared life, thought structure and value patterns of people. It has
the capacity to unite the people together and make them work to improve their
common destiny. In this sense linguistic homogeneity strengthens a positive
movement
 Establishment of State Reorganization Commission in 1955 was the result of
demand for formation of regional units based in linguistic regionalism. SRC could
not completely follow the principle of one language one state. This could not be
treated as the sole criteria for the demarcation of state boundaries. Bilingual
states like Bombay, Punjab, etc., were created However, splitting up of Bombay in
1960, Punjab in 1966, and Assam since mid-sixties into linguistically more
homogeneous states gave further impetus to linguistic regionalism in Indian
politics.
 If language had been synonymous with region, the political aspiration of every
linguistic group would have been satisfied or the formation of separate
states.This, however, is neither a reality nor a foreseeable possibility. The first
reason being that Hindi speaking people are distributed over a very large
territory. Their number is over 200 million. One state cannot be created for them.
They have been divided into six states U.P. Bihar, M.P. Rajasthan, Haryana and
Himachal Pradesh and a couple of Union territories. There has rarely been a
demand for the formation of single state of Hindi-speaking people. On the
contrary there have been demands for separate states comprising languages or
dialects within this wider linguistic group. This can be found in the occasional
 demand for a Maithili or for recognition of Rajasthani, Haryanvi, etc., as
scheduled languages in the Constitution.
 Thus regionalism is closely associated with language but is not synonymous with
linguism. Regionalism can take place inside a linguistic state for example creation
of Marathi-speaking Maharashtra. The seven states of North East India refer to
themselves as seven sisters. They have tided to form common bonds on the basis
of their problems of development They have also tried to develop a regional
identity. These seven states include Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur,
Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. In other words language is not the
sole generator of regionalism. It is one of the several bases of regionalism in
India.In most cases of linguistic regionalism many inter-related factors are usually
found to be working together.
3. Caste : An important example of the caste factor providing impetus to linguistic
regionalism can be seen in the case of Tamil Nadu. Tamil regionalism gained
ground as a result of non-Brahmin movement Non-Brahmin castes of Tamil
speaking region had been able to provide a powerful united thrust against
Brahmins who had enjoyed unquestioned dominance in economy, society and
polity.
4. Religion :
 Religion like caste does not play a significant role except when it is combined with
dominance and linguistic homogeneity as in Punjab fed on a sense of religious
orthodoxy and economic deprivation as in Jammu and Kashmir.
 If casteism reinforced and propelled linguistic regionalism in case of Tamil Nadu,
the demand for the formation of Punjabi Suba though presented in linguistic garb
had religious overtones. They were mainly responsible for evoking people’s
political loyalties on massive scale rather than their love for their mother tongue.
It is difficult to qualify the mix of communalism and linguism in this particular
case. But some studies make it very clear that demand for Punjabi language state
was certainly reinforced by regular invocation of Punjab-speaking masses loyalty
towards Sikh religion.
 Taking into account these three factors i.e.language, caste and religion one can
say that the study of regionalism in Punjab and Tamil Nadu makes it very clear
that political movements for regional demands were carried out formally in the
name of language but in reality they had substantive non-linguistic bases too.
5. Economic Basis : Economic factor is the crux of regional politics.India is a
developing country.The resources are limited while the demand for resources for
the development of various regions is unlimited or disproportionate to resources.
Economic policies have led to regional imbalances and wide economic disparities
among various regions resulting in discontentment among them. It may be
recalled that most of the demands for constituting new states were primarily
based on allegedly unfair and unequal distribution of development benefits and
expenditure in multilingual states. Movement for a separate Uttarakhand state in
the hill districts of U.P., a Jharkhand state carved out of parts of Bihar, Orissa and
a state of Bodo land comprising a part of Assam are examples of this type.The
demands for separate states in these instances are mainly on the belief that these
 regions have been economically deprived by their respective states. Economic
factors have usually assumed prime importance in regional politics.
6. Politico-administrative Basis : The politico-administrative basis of regionalism is
also important but politics as such does not create regionalism. It only
accentuates regionalism. Politicians take advantage of the situation of regional
discontentment and unrest. They convert it into movements for strengthening
their individual and factional support bases. It is a known fact that fighting within
Congress gave rise to Telangana agitation. Shiv Sena was able to flourish in
Maharashtra because of the support of Congress bosses. Regional political parties
like DMK (Tamil Nadu), Akali Dal (Punjab), and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha
(Jharkhand) are surviving because of regional sentiments. Border disputes like the
one between Maharashtra and Karnataka is also based on regional sentiments.
Another important fact of politics of regionalism is the real or assumed charges of
political discrimination among various regions by the central ruling elite.

FORMS OF REGIONALISM IN INDIA :

Regional Politics has taken mainly four forms namely :

1. Demand for state autonomy

2. Supra-state regionalism
3. Inter-state regionalism, and
4. Intra-state regionalism.

Demand for State Autonomy :

The First and the most challenging form of regional politics was in the demand of people
in certain states or regions to Indian Union and become independent sovereign
states.Such demands occurred soon after independence but they are non-existent
now.The important examples in this context are that of the plebiscite by National Front
(Kashmir),Akali (not the present parties) in Punjab, Mizo National Front (Lushei Hills of
Assam), Nagaland socialist Conference (Naga Hills District of Assam) etc.

Supra-state Regionalism :

1. This implies that more than one state involved in the issue of regionalism. It is an
expression of group identity of some states. They take a common stand on the
issues of mutual interest vis-a-vis another group of states.The group identity is
usually in relation to certain specific issues. It does not in any way imply the total
and permanent merger of identity of the states into the identity of group,
rivalries, tensions and even conflicts to take place among a few belonging to a
group. For example, the rivalry existing between south and north India on such
issues as language or location of steel plants illustrates the point The grouping of
the North Eastern States for greater access to economic development is another
instance.
 2. South India is separated from North along several differentials. Geographically
south is composed of peninsular uplands or Deccan, the mountain ranges of
Eastern and Western Ghats and coastal plains. In terms of political history too,
south has never been incorporated into the empires of the North. This was done
for the first time during the British regime.
3. After independence a major rift was caused over the issue of the official language
for India. The Constitution envisaged the replacement of English by Hindi for
official purpose of the Union as the language of communication between the
centre and the states and between states. The state legislatures of Indian Union
were given authority to adopt one or more languages including Hindi for use as
the state language.The Constitution provides that the official language of the
union should be Hindi with Devanagari script, with international numerals for a
period of 15 years from the commencement of the Constitution. However,
Parliament could by law extends the use of English as the link language.The
attempt to introduce the provision regarding the official language has generated
more intense language rivalry than unity.
4. The opposition to Hindi found its strongest political expression in the southern
states. Most of the people in these states as well as those in the non-Hindi
speaking areas of Eastern India objected to the imposition of Hindi. It was feared
that their own languages would be ultimately replaced by Hindi, which they
considered inferior. The adoption of Hindi as an official language and as a
compulsory subject in schools was seen as imposition of a comparatively
underdeveloped language upon those whose language contains a richness of
thousands of years.
5. In the 1950s and 60s several movements to oppose the imposition of Hindi
sprang up. In 1956, the Academy of Tamil culture convened in Madras the Union
Language Convention which stated in a resolution that it would be greatly unjust
to make any other language (meaning Hindi) take the place of English when a
population of 100 million are totally unacquainted with that language.
Significantly this Convention included representatives from different political
organizations i.e. Rajagopalachari (Swatantra), Ramaswami Naickar (D.K.), Rajan
(Justice Party), Annadurai (DMK) and many others. At a National Conference held
on 8th March 1958, Rajagopalachari declared that ‘Hindi is as much foreign to
non-Hindi speaking people as, English to protagonists of Hindi.”

Inter-state Regionalism :
It is related with state boundaries and involves overlapping of one or more state
identities which threaten their interests. River water disputes, in general and other
issues like the Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute, in particular can be cited as
examples.

Intra-state Regional Politics or Sub-regionalism :

This refers to regionalism which exists within a state of the Indian Union.It embodies the
desire of a part of a state for the identity and self-development It may also reflect a
notion of deprivation or exploitation of a part of the state at the expense of another.
This type of regionalism can be found in many parts of India. The important examples of
this kind of sub-regionalism are a Vidharbha in Maharashtra, a Saurashtra in Gujarat, a
Telangana in Andhra Pradesh, an East U.P in Utter Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in Madhya
Pradesh.

SIGNIFICANCE OF REGIONALISM FOR INDIAN POLITICS

Regionalism is not significant merely as disintegrating force. Regionalism is not opposed
to national
integration. Both can exist together in a creative partnership. Both are in favour of
development.

1. Regionalism stresses the development of a region and national integration for the
development of the nation as a whole. If we want to reconcile the competing
claims of regionalism and national integration the political system of the country
should remain federal and democratic.
2. Regionalism is not disruptive of national solidarity. The important condition for
national solidarity is that nationalism should be able to hold the different types of
regional sub-nationalities together. In other words, there should be healthy
reconciliation between regionalism and nationalism.
3. Regionalism can make federalism a greater success. In this aspect the
accentuation of regional identities should not become problematic. It is quite
natural that regional communities, who are conscious of their distinctive culture,
should interact with federal government on the basis of more equal partnership.
It will reduce the centralizing tendencies in a nation and power will shift from the
centre to the states.

Conceived in any form, regionalism and sub-regionalism are unavoidable in a country as

vast and diverse as India.Their existence is not only an important condition for the
expression of genuine national sentiment, but it is logically generated because of the
establishment of the nation state. Nothing is, therefore, more basic to the concept of
federalism than regionalism and sub-regionalism.

DECENTRALIZATION IN INDIA
Decentralization means sharing of decision- making authority with the lower levels in
institutions and organization. It is called democratic as this sharing is based on the basic
principle of democracy and democratization. It is argued that decentralization is
essential for the functioning of a democratic system at different levels.

States in India are as large as independent countries of Europe. In terms of

population, Uttar Pradesh is bigger than Russia; Maharashtra is about as big as
Germany. Many of these States are internally very diverse.There is thus a need for
power sharing within these States. Federal power sharing in India needs another tier of
government, below that of the State governments. This is the rationale for
decentraliasation of power. Thus, resulted a third-tier of government, called local
government.

When power is taken away from Central and State governments and given to local
government, it is called decentralisation.The basic idea behind decentralization is that

1. There are a large number of problems and issues which are best settled at the
local level
2. People have better knowledge of problems in their localities.
3. They also have better ideas on where to spend money and how to manage things
more efficiently.
4. Besides, at the local level it is possible for the people to directly participate in
decision- making.This helps to inculcate a habit of democratic participation.
5. Local government is the best way to realize one important principle of
democracy, namely local self government.

According to Lord Bryce, “the best school of democracy and the best guarantee for its
success is the practice of local self-govt” The gross root level of democracy is the
modern version of direct democracy. It bring the govt down to the people. In big
countries like India with large population and regional variations, democracy to be
meaningful and welfare-oriented implies decentralization. Devolution of power from
the higher to lower levels is a necessary and desirable method in a democratic polity. In
a democracy, sovereignty should percolate from the apex authority to the lower rungs
of power. That how it can become, what Sidney and Beatrice Webb called a ‘multi-form
democracy’.

Panchayati Raj System

Balwant Rai Mehta Committee recommended : Three-tier-system:

Gram Sabha and Gram Panchayat :

Gram Sabha : General body of all eligible voters in the village/group of villages.
Gram Panchayat : Executive Committee of Gram Sabha

Main Functions :

 Administrative: Maintenance of budget and accounts, registration of birth, death

and marriages, etc.
 Law and Order: Maintenance of watch and ward service.
 Commercial: Supervision of Panchayat enterprises, community orchards and
fisheries.
 Civic: Upkeep of roads and streets, culverts and bridges, maintenance of drainage
and sanitation, wells and tanks, supervision of street lighting etc.
  Welfare: Famine and flood relief work, welfare programmes for women, youth,
children and for backward classes, maintenance of Panchayat schools and holding
of village fairs.
 Developmental: Preparation and execution of the village agricultural and
irrigational plans as well as plans for the promotion of cooperatives, cottage and
small scale industries.

Panchayat Samiti (at block level) :

Chairman : Pradhan or Pramukh

Functions :

 Delegated: to implement and coordinate the policy directives of the state govt
with regard to development
 Community Development: all related functions of CDP.
 Supervisory: to supervise the work of Gram Panchayat, examine and modify the
budget of GP.

Zila Parishad : The apex body of PRI.

Functions :

 Advisory : to govt towards developmental activities.

 Financial : examine and approve the budgets of Panchayat samitis and
distribution of funds.
 Coordinative and Supervisory: Function of the developmental plans of the Block.
 Developmental : Execution of developmental plans and projects in the Blocks.
 Civic : construct and maintain public roads, bridges, culverts, parks, water supply
and building etc.
 Welfare : establish markets, hold fairs and festivals run libraries, dispensaries,
public health and family planning centres, etc.

73rd Amendment Act (Art. 243 to 243-0/Part IX)

 A 3-tier system in all states except those having a population of 20 lakh or less.
 Members to be chosen by direct election
 Reservation: l/3rd seats reserved for SC/ST and women also for OBC on the
willingness of the state.
 Duration: 5 years (on dissolution of Panchayat-elections mandatory within 6
months).
 Provision of an Independent Election Commission
 Provision of an Independent Finance Commission
Both at State level

 11th Schedule : enumerated 29 items on which the power and responsibility of

the Panchayat would extend.

A Case Study (Dr. Rajvir S. Dhaka)

State : Haryana
District : Rohtak (3 blocks and 450 respondents chosen for study)

Major Findings :

1. Prior to this act, there were just 45 women Sarpanch their present strength is
over 2000. Cases of husband proxing for the elected wives are not scarce.
However, the situation should be treated as transitory; the cases of women
asserting their rights and brooking no interference from husbands have started
sneaking in.
2. Lack of awareness of powers and functions on the part of the elected
representatives, does come in the way of active participation of the people in the
PR affairs and confidence building to shoulder leadership responsibilities
3. Reservation of seats for SC/ST has made a serious dent in the traditional upper
caste leadership. Even though their voice is still feeble, the process of
mobilization of weaker section has begun.
4. Meetings of the Gram Panchayat are not held regularly. In many cases, meetings
take place only on paper.
5. Gram Sabha’s role almost obsolete. It seldom meets to discuss village problems.
And if it does meet, it is mainly to solve social problems or feuds among the
villagers.
6. A close nexus between Sarpanches of G.P.and Chairpersons of the Block Samiti on
the one hand and Block Level officials on the other has developed for usurping
development resources. This has resulted in development schemes not getting
implemented as per norms on being implemented only on paper.
7. Even after being accorded the constitutional status there has been a continuous
interference from the side of MPs, MLAs, other local leaders and officials.

Achievements :

1. First time it has provided organizational infrastructure at the local level

throughout the country.
2. It is a link between people and local officials and between people and govt
3. It has provided a young leadership with broader vision and enthusiasm.
4. It has made the people more conscious of their rights.
5. PRIs have encouraged the people to take responsibilities on their own shoulders.
6. It has encouraged people to make collective efforts for village development
7. Women and oppressed people are well represented and protected
8. It has brought down the level of corruption.
 9. A new pattern of leadership consisting of all sections.
10.Political education and training for future leadership.
11.Process of grass root planning has been enhanced

Some Novel Experiment to Boost PRIs :

1. Concept of Mini Secretariat: Adopted in Rajasthan wherein all the concerned

officers would gather in the meeting and the villagers would their problems
solved without hassles. Later on it was adopted by M.P., A.P. and other states.
People have now more beliefs in PRIs then ever.
2. Gram Swaraj: Adopted in M.P. and then in other states. Its objective is to make
villages autonomous and more participative. Such experiments would definitely
strength PRIs greatly.

Secularization: Characteristics, Causes and Effects

Secularisation in Sociology is defined as the transformation of a society from getting
influenced by religion to an independent secular one. Derived from the Latin word,
secular means ‘present age or generation’ it was first defined by Brian Wilson in 1966
as “the process by which religious thinking, practices, and institutions lose social
significance.” Prior to secularisation, human activity including work, healing, social and
jurisdictional procedures was regulated by supernatural preconceptions. The
introduction of secularism made these preconceptions lose their power and economy,
justice, health, morality, education, and family were operated with considerable
autonomy.

M N Srinivas on secularization:
M. N. Srinivas had famously defined secularization as follows – ‘the term ‘secularization’
implies that what was previously regarded as religious is ceasing to be such, and it also
implies a process of differentiation which results in the various aspects of society,
economic, political, legal and moral, becoming increasingly discrete in relation to each
other’. However, according to him, differentiation does not mean disconnection

Thus his definition has two aspects –

 Notion of religion itself

 Differentiation of Institutions

He further says, secularization as a process has been subsumed in Westernization which

is a much broader term.

Elements/ Characteristics of secularisation

The elements or characteristics of social change are determined by certain principles.
 1. Separation of state from affairs of religion thereby creates a distance between
religion and society.
2. Related to work matters.
3. Personalising religious affairs.
4. Considering all rituals to be man-made or artificial.

Characteristics of secularisation are :

Secular meaning within religion.

 Modification of religious doctrines and practices to changing needs of members in

response to the changing society
 Refraining religious institutions and individuals from getting involved with
educational, philanthropic, and hospitals

Rational and reasonable

 Man is free to choose what they want. Rationalisation is based on making choices
according to reason rather than following them blindly
 Application of logic, intelligence, and wisdom over emotion and sentiments, thus
speeding up secularisation in the society

Curiosity

 Every secular man has the right to inquire about the causes and effects of the
rituals performed
 They have freedom of choice and cannot be influenced to follow rituals blindly

Scientific temper and outlook

 Scientific influence forces man to question religion. This makes him a secular
individual and an anti-fatalist who is not forced to follow doctrines and events
that were initially made with the vision that humans were powerless to change
them
 The scientific approach revolts against the religious outlook of man from the past

Modernization

 While secularisation was brought mere 100 years ago, religious practices were
conducted long before
 With people getting smarter and more intelligent every decade, modern society
has kept itself away from the influence of religious faith and symbols while
making everyday life decisions
Causes and effects of secularisation
There are seven causes for secularisation in India

Education

 Education, western education to be specific, played an important role in

diminishing Indian culture, and the practice of western culture became more
prominent
 Modern education encouraged the generation to seek a scientific attitude in
solving problems and the traditional religious beliefs
 Marriage is now based on a secular attitude rather than a sacred religious
ceremony

Transportation and communication

 With modern education came the invention of telephones and railways which
gave the opportunity to mix around with people of different countries. This led to
an exchange of ideas and the growth of liberal thoughts
 Caste system views regarding it changed

Reform movements

 Religious and reform movements by leaders like Keshav Chandra Sen, Raja Ram
Mohan Roy, and Mahatma Gandhi played their roles in bringing about
secularisation in the country

Urbanisation

 Developed and semi-developed parts (metro cities) are more secular by the
influence of western culture, education, transport and communication, and
economic problems
 Rural areas are yet to be totally secularised

Legislation

 Widow Remarriage Act, 1856, Caste Disabilities Removal Act, 1850, Special
Marriage Act, 1872 enacted by the British were against the orthodox believers of
that time
 Adoption of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, the
Hindu Widow Remarriage Act, 1956, the Maintenance Act has also played their
role in a secular country
Western culture

 India has been greatly influenced by western culture which lays importance on
materialism, individualism, sensualism, non-religionism, and licence
 Political parties and leads speak the language of secularism
 Western culture has brought about changes not only in religion but also in
literature and art

Indian Constitution

 Articles 27-30 deal with rights to freedom of religion and make India a secular
state
 India is declared a secular country according to the amended preamble where
every citizen has equal rights without discrimination of age, sex, caste, and creed

Secular meaning in India

1. India has a multi religious society and even definition of religion is not
fixed. Indian secularism according to Rajiv Bhargava is not strict separation of
religion and politics, but explained in terms of ‘principled distance between
religion and politics’. Indian society had been historically tolerant towards
religious affairs and secularism in modern sense arrived only during 19th century
as a part of cultural and religious reform movements. Nationalism, freedom
struggle, growth of western education etc helped its rise.
2. There is also a plurality of view over its definitional and emergence aspects. A
liberal plural view was taken by modern nationalists before independence. It
called for separation of religion and other institutions and advocated religious
pluralism. An ‘orthodox plural view’ was led by like of Gandhiji, Dayanand
Saraswati, Ramakrishna Mission etc who saw Indian society as secular from
beginning due to its marked tolerance. There was Marxist view also which
interpreted secularism as disappearance of religion altogether.
3. Our constitutional and parliamentary democratic framework adopts liberal plural
view. The constitution of India enacted the 42nd amendment, where the
Preamble stated that India is a secular country. As of now, there were pleas
made to the supreme court on the 28th of July 2020, to omit the words secular
and socialist from the preamble. According to Nehru ‘It does not mean a society
where religion is discouraged, it means freedom of religion and conscience,
including freedom for those who may have no religion’.
4. Our secularism is primarily directed against two evils – first, the religious strife
between different religious communities and its extreme forms like communal
violence and riots; and, secondly, the danger of religious communities
overwhelming the state, each with its own view of ‘good life’ as valid for others
too. Both arose as a problem in the second half of the 19th century. The
conceptual construct of secularism is adopted in India by way of a solution to the
problems, posed by fundamentalism and communalism. Thus, Indian secularism
 is not a result of tussle between the Church and the State as in case of Europe,
but conceptualized as an anti-dote to twin evils of communalism and
fundamentalism. It is more on lines of ‘sarva dharma sambhava’, rather than on
strict ‘dharm nirpekhsta’. Articles of constitution like – Article 25-28 and also
stress on freedom of faith and religion, rather than banishing it.
5. There are other alternate views of the everyday meaning of the word secularism
in India. The most common use of secular in everyday language is as the ‘opposite
of communal’. So, a secular person or state is one that does not favour any
particular religion over others. Secularism in this sense is the opposite of religious
chauvinism and it need not necessarily imply hostility to religion as such. In terms
of the state-religion relationship, this sense of secularism implies equal respect
for all religions, rather than separation or distancing. For example, the secular
Indian state declares public holidays to mark the festivals of all religions.
6. Indian version of secularism also poses certain challenges. Supporters of Western
notion of secularism accuse state of indulging into religious sphere as state
supports many activities like Haj Pilgrim, manage shrines like Tirupati,
Viashnodevi and so on.
7. Another set of complications is created by the tension between the Indian state’s
simultaneous commitment to secularism as well as the protection of minorities.
The protection of minorities requires that they be given special consideration in a
context where the normal working of the political system places them at a
disadvantage vis-à-vis the majority community. But providing such protection
immediately invites the accusation of favoritism or ‘appeasement’ of minorities.
8. Andre Beteille comments that people of India are ‘bound more by culture than
constitution’. Religion in India is not just practiced, but it is a part of dress, food
and mannerism of people. In words of T N Madan, ‘religion and secular cannot
be separated, in other words, religion cannot be in any meaningful sense
privatized’. Thus, there is a difference in de-jure secularism as envisaged in
constitution and defacto secularism as practiced by society.

Conclusion
Secularism is practised in all modern states. This has greatly benefited people from all
castes and creeds to get an equal opportunity with no discrimination on grounds of
caste, creed, and culture. Indian culture has now been based on social movements and
spiritual traditions.
 Social Movements in Modern India
Peasants and Farmers Movements
UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
People may damage a bus and attack its driver when the bus has run over a child. This
is an isolated incident of protest. Since it flares up and dies down, it is not a social
movement.

1. A social movement requires sustained collective action over time.

2. Such action is often directed against the state and takes the form of demanding
changes in state policy or practice.
3. Spontaneous, disorganized protest cannot be called a social movement Collective
action must be marked by some degree of organization.
4. This organization may include a leadership and a structure that defines how
members relate to each other, make decisions and carry them out
5. Those participating in a social movement also have shared objectives and
ideologies.
6. A social movement has a general orientation or way of approaching to bring
about (or to prevent) change.
7. These defining features are not constant. They may change over the course of a
social movement’s life.

Social movements often arise with the aim or bringing about changes on a public
issue, such as ensuring the right of the tribal population to use the forests or the right
of displaced people to settlement and compensation; While social movements seek to
bring in social change, counter movements some times arise in defence of status quo.
There are many instances of such counter movements.

1. When Raja Rammohan Roy campaigned against sati and formed the Brahmo
Samaj, defenders of sati formed Dharma Sabha and petitioned the British not to
legislate against sati.
2. When reformers demanded education for girls, many protested that this would
be disastrous for society. When reformers campaigned for widow remarriage,
they were socially boycotted
3. When the so called ‘lower caste’ children enrolled in schools, some so called
Tipper caste’ children were withdrawn from the schools by their families.
4. Peasant movements have often been brutally suppressed
5. More recently the social movements of erstwhile excluded groups like the Dalits
have often invoked retaliatory action.
6. Likewise proposals for extending reservation in educational institutions have led
to counter movements.

Social movements cannot change society easily Since it goes against both entrenched
interests and values, there is bound to be opposition and resistance. But over a period
changes to take place.
Social Movement and Social Change

1. It is important to distinguish between social change in general and social

movements. Social change is continuous and ongoing process. The broad
historical processes of social change are the sum total of countless individual
and collective actions gathered across time and space. Social movements are
directed towards some specific goals. It involves long and continuous social
effort and action by people. Sanskritisation and westernization are examples of
social change and the 19th century social reformers effort to change society are
examples of social movements.
2. Social movements in India have not only been protest and dissent movements
but also reform and reaction aryas well as socio-religious and freedom
movements. These movements defined as “collective effort to promote/resist
change” came into origin only after uniformity in intellectual orientations, social
structures, ideological presences, and perceptions of truth came into existence. It
is a well-known fact that characteristics of society shape the styles of movements.
Therefore, the elements of social structure and the future vision of society
provide the focal point of analysis of social movements.

The orientation of social movements :

Till the British period, the orientation of social movements in our country was religious,
though national liberation movement also emerged after the 1930s which was overtly
against the forces of imperialism and colonialism. But, after independence, the new
situation that emerged led to divergence in the targets of attack, say political authority,
economic exploitation, cultural domination, male domination and humiliation of women
and so forth. This led to proliferation of diverse movements.

Classification of Social Movements :

1. Social movements have been classified on the basis of numerous criteria. Nature
of change intended, organizational mode and strategy, nature of demands,
groups and collectivities involved are some of the major criteria used for the
purpose, e.g., tribal movement, Harijan movement, women’s movement, peasant
movement, student movement, industrial workers’ movement, and on the basis
of the nature of collectivities against which they are led, e.g.,anti-Brahminism,
anti-leftist, anti-Dalits and so on.
2. Yet other basis of classification is their territorial anchorage, e.g., locality in
which they originate and operate, e.g., Vidharbha movement, Telangana
movement, Chhattisgarh movement, Jharkhand or Vananchal movement,
Uttaranchal movement, and so on. Such names indirectly point out the goals
pursued
3. Movements are also named after the issues they pursue, e.g., Anti-Hindi
movement, Anticorruption movement, Movement are named after their initial or
top leadership too, e.g., Gandhian movement, Ramakrishna movement, J.R
 (Jayaprakash) movement, etc. M.S.A.Rao has talked of three types of movement-
reformist, transformative, and revolutionary.

All these movements are characterized by five elements

1. Collective goal
2. Common ideology of widely accepted programme
3. Collective action
4. Minimal degree of organization and leadership.
5. Thus, a ‘social movement’ with above characteristics is different from ‘agitation’
as the latter has no ideology and no organization.
6. Ghanshyam Shah holds that some co-active actions termed by some scholars as
‘agitations’ are considered by others as movements; e.g., demand for the
formation of linguistic states. Shah himself considers them as ‘movements’ or a
part of a social movement of a particular stratum of society. Thus demand for
Jharkhand in Bihar, Uttaranchal in Uttar Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh in Madhya
Pradesh can be described as social movements according to him.
7. Desai held that some movements are caused by the inability of our Constitution
to protect the civil and the democratic rights of people. Rajni Kothari is of the
opinion that failure of the state in ‘social transformation’ of society in which
repression and intimidation of large masses of people has become common
compels people to assert their rights through various struggles.
8. Gurr and M.S.A. Rao have explained social movements in terms of ‘relative
deprivation.’ Rao focuses on the ‘possibility of doing something by the sufferer’
along with relative deprivation.
9. Ghanshyam Shah and T.K. Oommen do not accept Relative Deprivation
Approach in explaining social movements. Oommen’s argument is that
deprivation theorists do not view movements as ‘ongoing process of change’.
They also do not deal with the sources of deprivation. Shah holds that deprivation
theorist ignore the importance of consciousness and the ideological aspects of
the participants.

PEASANT AND FARMERS MOVEMENTS

The study of peasant movements has emerged as an important area in the study of
social movement in India. Since India is essentially an agrarian country, it is natural that
the study of agrarian problems has assumed a central place in sociological issues.

1. Patterns of landownership, tenancy, use and control of land, all reflect the
complex nature of agrarian structure. The complexity of agrarian structure is also
manifested in the agrarian class structure which has existed since long in rural
areas. The diversity of land systems and agrarian relations has produced an
elaborate structure of agrarian classes. The later vary from one region to another.
However, based on the nature of rights in land and the type of income derived
from it, Daniel Thorner has identified three major agrarian classes in India. They
are Maliks, Kisans and Mazdoors. Big landlords and rich landowners are included
 under the category of Maliks. Kisans are inferior to Maliks comprising self-
cultivating owners of land They are small landowners and tenant Mazdoors earn
their livelihood from working on others lands. This category includes poor
tenants, share-croppers and landless labourers. This classification of agrarian
classes broadly reflects the Indian reality.
2. But it needs to be recognized that the agrarian hierarchy, Corresponds with the
caste hierarchy which we find in different parts of the country. The rich
landowners and moneylenders mainly belong to the upper castes. The middle and
small peasants come from the traditional peasants castes. The landless labourers
belong primarily to the lower classes. Such a position merely shows a pattern. It
does not refer to the exact situation in the rural areas.
3. The nature of agrarian class structure has been mentioned here to understand
the structural background in which movements have been launched by different
classes of peasantry. D.N. Dhanagare’s study of peasant movements in India
helps us to know the nature of these movements. According to Dhanagare, the
term ‘peasant movement’ refers to all kinds of collective attempts of different
strata of the peasantry either to change the system which they felt was
exploitative, or to seek redress for particular grievances without necessarily
aiming at overthrowing the system. Peasant movements thus include all kinds of
movements, violent and non-violent, organized and specific.

Issues Involved in Peasant Movements :

1. Some were related to conflicts between tenants and landlords; some were
because of the oppression by zamindars of majority religious community
(Hindus), and
2. Some were because of the factors like communal outburst, provocation by
government officials and police etc., for improving economic conditions, demands
for higher wages, forced labour (beggar) and so on.
3. It is held by some writers that Gandhi mobilized the peasantry for the cause of
national freedom and not for fighting against zamindars and money lenders.
4. There are other writers who suggest that the relationship between peasant
movements and the national movements was one of reciprocity, i.e., give and
take. The tasks of taking up peasants class demands as well as fighting against
imperialists were dealt with simultaneously In any case peasants specific needs
and interests of security of tenure, debt relief and cheap credit etc., could not be
emphasized strongly by the nationalist leaders.

After independence, however, the leaders tried to mobilize peasantry against zamindars
and landlords. The exploited peasantry was not a united group as they were vertically
aligned with the masters through factional ties. Initially, the poor peasants were least
militant but as the anti-landlords and anti-rich peasant sentiment was built up by the
middle peasant, the revolutionary energy of the poor peasant was transformed into a
revolutionary force. But peasants taking up revolutionary action were not on all India
basis. It was only in some regions.
Six different viewpoints of the agrarian movements in India have been studied by
sociologists :

1. In terms of their functioning as associations at micro levels;

2. Relationship between politics and agrarian movements, i.e., mobilizing peasants
by political parties like Congress, communists etc.
3. Relationship between social structure (caste, class and power) and agrarian
movements;
4. Relationship between the green revolution and agrarian movements. (The green
revolution not only affected the traditional agrarian relations but it also
accentuated economic disparities and accelerated social aspirations of villagers);
5. Relationship between agrarian legislation and movements (i.e., movements
causing legislation and legislation causing movements); and
6. Relationship between mobilization and organization of movements. Some
movements for the welfare of peasants were organized on Gandhian principles.
Two such movements were Bhoodan movement of Vinoba Bhave and Sarvodya
movement of Jayaprakash Narayan. The immediate objective of the Bhoodan
movement was collecting land from the rich and its distribution to the poor.
However, this movement failed in achieving its goal.
7. India has a long history of peasant movements. The nineteenth century India is
considered a treasure house of materials on peasant heroism. The movements
in the period between 1858 and 1914 tended to remain localized disjointed and
confined to particular grievances. The most militant peasant movement of this
period was the Indigo Revolt 1859-60 in Bengal. Only a decade later, similar
violent disturbance took place in Babana and Bogara in Bengal in 1872-73.
These struggles were directed against Zamindars who were the symbols of
exploitation and atrocities.
8. The landowning and money-lending classes had consolidated their position not
only in zamindari areas but also in Ryotwari and Mahalwari areas. The small
landholders, tenants and share-croppers were the victims of the moneylender’s
tyranny. Accordingly, the peasants revolted against the oppression of the
powerful agrarian classes. One of such revolts in Ryotwari area is known as the
Deccan Riots of 1875 that occurred in western Maharashtra. A series of Moplah
uprisings in Malabar region of southern India also took place throughout the
nineteenth century. They were expressions of long-standing agrarian discontent
among the poor Moplah peasantry.
9. It is fascinating to note that peasants’ grievances also became a component of
the India’s freedom struggle during the early twentieth century. The Champaran
Movement in 1917, the Kheda Satyagrah of 1918 and Bardoli Satyagrah of 1928
were the major non-violent anti-British struggles. Since Mahatma Gandhi was
involved in these satyagrahas, they are popularly known as Gandhian agrarian
movements. Most of these movements took up relatively major agrarian issues
but they succeeded in arousing political awareness among the masses. Thus, the
most significant aspect of these movements was their simultaneous involvement
in the nation-wide struggle for freedom.
 10.However, peasants in other parts of the country were not inactive. They were
equally restive and raised their grievances. Between1920 and 1946 several
peasant organizations and movements emerged in Bihar and Bengal which
protested against the deplorable condition of the middle and poor peasants. The
first organization to be founded was the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha and in 1936
the All India Kisan Sabha.

The peasants organized by the Sabha. The peasants organized by the Sabhas demanded
freedom from economic exploitation for peasants, workers and all other exploited
classes. The more important peasant movements in different regions were: Tebhaga,
Telangana and Naxalite. The Bhoodan and Sarvodya movements also took up peasants
interests but they were taken up not by the peasants themselves but by Vinoba Bhave
and Jayaprakash Narayan.

Peasant Movement After Independence

We have briefly discussed above the nature and features of peasant movements to
familiarize ourselves with the role of social movements in social change. True, these
movements have not always been successful in achieving their immediate goals but
they created the climate which produced post-Independence agrarian reforms. Certain
issues which had dominated colonial times changed after independence. For land
reforms, zamindari abolition, declining importance of land revenue and public credit
system began to alter rural areas. The period after 1947 was characterized by two major
social movements-the Naxalite struggle and the ‘new farmer’s movements’.

Tebhaga movement (1946-47) was caused and facilitated by a large number of factors

1. The 1943 famine,

2. Drive against jotedars, hoarders and black-marketers,
3. Social solidarity of the tribals involved in the movement, and
4. The increased bargaining capacity of share-croppers.

Since this movement was limited in its spread it failed The wedge between Hindus and
Muslims-the participants groups i.e., communal politics, lack of harmony between caste
and class and the upper class manipulation of loyalties within the peasants also
contributed to its failure (Dhanagare).

Telangana movement: The Telangana movement (1946-52) of Andhra Pradesh was

fought against the feudal oppression of rulers and local land owners. The process of sub
infeudation and oppressive social structure. Rural telangana’s political economy
consisted of jagirdars or deshmukhs. They were intermediary land owners with higher
title cum-money lenders cum-village officials and were mostly form the upper caste or
influential muslim community. Because to their privileged economic and political status
they could easily subject the poor peasantry to extra economic coereion though vetty
(forced labour) system. At the bottom of agrarian hierarchy were the untouchable
castes and tribals.
The Inadian national congress, Andhra Jan Sangham and Andhra Maha Sabha Raised the
issue of poor Condition of peasantry since1920’s.Several resolutions were passed
against the jagirdari and the vetty system by AMS. Significantly Andhra Communist
party was established in 1934. After ban on community party was lifted in 1942, they
captured the leadership of AMS. They raised the issue of ‘abolition of vetty prevention
of reek-renting and eviction of tenants, ‘reduction of taxed revenues and rents’,
’confirmation of occupancy rights of the cultivating tenants’. All these process of
mobilization culminated into political consciousness of peasant and led to new
awakening.

After 1947 the movement took a new turn with India independence and subsequent
refusal of nizam to join Indian union. The CPI penely called for guerrilla struggle against
the razakars and government forces by forming village defense committees.
Administration of Nizam came to stand still in near 4000 village vetty was abolished
Untouchbility was prohibited Land was redistributed very quickly. Unpaid debts were
cancelled tenants were given full tenancy rights. Armed women defended themselves
against the nazakar (k. Lalita, Vekannabirn 1989) Indian union initiated Army Action
Against Nizam and subsequently against CPI in1978. They pained protracted struggle
however it was difficult for communist cadre to withstand against Army. Several
hundreds of peasant rebels killed The logic of movement was rethought by the leaders
and common peasantry. In 1951the politburo of CPI called of the struggle.

The Naxalbari Movement : When the United Front government with CPI participation
came into power in West Bengal in February 1967, some active and vocal groups
emerged One of them under the leadership of Charu Majumdar and Kanu
Sanyal insisted on developing militancy on the peasant front, and preparing peasants
for an armed struggle. Initially, the leaders preached massive participation of peasants
for forcible occupation of benamy land but later on they emphasized liquidation of class
enemies through the use of guerrilla tactics. Thus, mass movements were replaced by
underground small group squads. This guerrilla activity of Naxalbari movement struck
most in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh and later on in Bihar and presently in
Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

The peasant revolt in Naxalbari started in 1972 in three areas in Darjeeling district of
West Bengal. Landowners were called jotedars and tenants were called adhiari. The
status of adhiari was precarious. They were so much exploited and treated like bonded
labour that it led to peasant revolt in the 1950s and the 1960s.

Kanu Sanyal and others made their first entry amongst the exploited peasants in the
1960s, demanding
abolition of zamindari, land to the tiller, prevention of tenant eviction, etc. In the
second phase of Naxalbari peasant uprising in the late 60s and early 1970s, secret
combat groups were formed and peasants were urged to seize the lands of jotedars and
the plantation workers who had purchased land from poor peasants, cultivate the
seized land and retain all the produce from lands, ask landlord for food and if he
refused, take it by force, deprive jotedars of his firearms.
The important characteristics of Naxalbari peasant uprising in West Bengal were :

1. Mobilization to protect the interests of the peasant and the labourer classes and
covering all ethnic (including tribes) and caste groups;
2. The means adopted were non-institutionalized and violence was encouraged;
3. Leadership was provided by communist party leaders;
4. It aimed at downward mobility of jotedars and upward mobility peasants and
labourers. Sarvodya movement and Naxalbari movement was different than the
former aimed at replacing individual ownership of land with communal
ownership while the latter aimed at individual ownership.

The factors which had contributed to the failure of this movement were :

1. Its anti-national slant as manifested in the Chinese support for it,

2. Its vocal denunciation of the Indian national leadership and acceptance of
Chinese leadership as source of its aspiration.
3. It’s declared intention to capture state power its open support to violence and
factionalism among the leftists.
4. R.K. Mukherjee has analyzed this movement in terms of relationship between
social structure and social change. He argues that although the declared
intention of the movement was capturing state power, in reality, the revolt was
not directed against the system but against its excesses. It was the exchange of
goods between the peasant and the owner landlords that was sought to be
properly regulated.

The so called ‘new farmer’s movements began in the 1970s in Punjab and Tamil Nadu.
These movements were regionally organized, were non-party, and involved farmers
rather than peasants (farmers are said to be market-involved as both commodity
producers and purchasers). The basic ideology of the movement was strongly anti-state
and anti-urban. The focus of demand was subsidy for agricultural inputs, taxation and
non-repayment of loans. Novel methods of agitation were used for blocking of roads
and railways, refusing politicians and bureaucrats entry to villages, and so on. It has
been argued that the farmers’ movements have broadened their agenda and ideology
and include environment and women’s issues. Therefore, they can be seen as a part of
the worldwide ‘new social movements’.

Overall Nature of Peasant Movements :

1. That these movements originated only after independence and that these are
purely social and cultural in nature;
2. Moore Junior (quoted by Ghanshyam Shah), writing about the peasant
movements in India has not accepted the revolutionary potential of the Indian
peasantry. According to him, Indian peasants are traditionally docile and passive
because of which cultivation remained lackadaisical and inefficient during the
Mughal and the British periods. Hence, there were no widespread peasant
movements.
 3. But Moore’s contention has been challenged by A.R.Desai, Kathleen Gough and
D.N. Dhanagare. They argue that a number of peasant revolts have been
overlooked by historians.
4. Gough has talked of 77 revolts in the last two centuries, the smallest of which
engaged several thousand peasants in active support.
5. A.R. Desai has also observed that the Indian rural scene during the entire British
period and thereafter had been bristling with protests, revolts and even large
scale militant struggles involving hundreds of villages and lasting for years.
6. Ranjit Guha has said that agrarian disturbances of different forms and scales were
endemic until the end of the nineteenth century. There were no fewer than 110
known revolts during117 years of the British rule.
7. Dhanagare has argued that Moore’s generalizations are questionable because
there were various peasant resistance movements and revolts in India.

Classification of Peasant Movements

1. According to A.R. Desai and Ghanshyam Shah, peasant movements in India, have
been classified on the basis of time period-into pre-British and post-
independence. The post-independence period is classified into pre-Naxalite and
post-Naxalite periods or pre and post-green revolution periods. The latter period
is further divided into pre and post-Emergency periods.
2. A.R. Desai is also of the opinion that the nature of peasant movements varies
according to the agrarian structures which have undergone changes during
different periods. He has classified colonial India into ryotwari areas under British
territory, zamindari areas under princely authority and tribal zones. The peasant
struggles in these areas had different characteristics, raised different issues and
involved different strata of the peasantry.
3. He further divides post- independence agrarian struggles into two categories:
struggles launched by rich farmers and by poor farmers. The agrarian structure
has thus not evolved a unified pattern throughout the country.

Kathleen Gough has classified peasant revolts on the basis of their goals, ideology and
methods of organization into five types :

1. Restorative rebellions to drive out the Britishers and restore earlier rulers,
2. Religious movements,
3. Social banditry,
4. Terrorism for collective justice, and
5. Mass insurrections for the redress of particular grievances.
 Women’s Movement in India
It is difficult to trace the origin of Women’s movement in India. Most accounts of the
movement start from the nineteenth century. But recently, social historians have
discussed its history from the pre-colonial times. They suggest that the evidence of
women’s movement first appeared in the Bhakti and Sufi movements of the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries. The important issue for us is to realize that the authority of
men necessarily determined the status of women. The oppressive condition of women
was reflected in the social practices such as child marriage, polygamy and prohibition of
widow remarriage, sati and the purda system. These practices continued till they were
challenged by the social reformers of the nineteenth century in form of Social
movements.

The factors that provided the required incentive to women’s movements were

1. The status of women has been the central concern of many reform movements
before and after independence. Leaders of the Brahmo Samaj and the Arya Samaj
were concerned with issues like sati, remarriage; divorce; female education,
purdah system, polygamy and dowry.
2. Justice Ranade criticized child marriages, polygyny, restrictions on remarriage of
widows, and non-access to education.
3. Raja Ram Mohan Roy played an important role in getting the sati system
abolished Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and Maharishi Karve pleaded for remarriage
of widows.
4. Therefore, most scholars maintain that womens movement in India began as a
part of social reform movements. We may say that the process of highlighting
women’s issues began in the nineteenth century.
5. Effect of western education on the male domination on women and on the
concept of complementary sex roles.
6. Leadership provided by educated elite women, interest of male social reformers
in changing social practices sanctioned by religion,
7. Changing socio-religious attitudes and philosophies, and decreasing social
hostility and opposition of males to women’s associations engaged in self-help
activities.
8. Benevolent attitude of political national leaders towards fledgling women’s
movements and their enthusiastic support to women campaigns.
9. The declaring of 1975-85 decade as the International Women’s decade also gave
impetus to women’s movements for removing the notion of inferiority of women
and giving them a sense of identity.
10.The Central Social Welfare Board (CSWB) established by the Government of India
in 1953, also promotes and strengthens voluntary efforts for the welfare of
women.
11.The Ministry of women and child Welfare, Government of India, too gives grants
to voluntary organizations for activities like construction/expansion of hostels for
working women in cities.
In the early phase of the twentieth century Mahatma Gandhi voiced his concern about
the degrading status of women. Gandhiji took interest in collective mobilization of
women to fight for political freedom as well as for their social and political rights. It was
because of his efforts that a large number of women came out of their homes and
joined the freedom struggle. He adopted a revolutionary approach to raise the status of
women. Gandhiji argued that women should be freed from social and legal disabilities.
He emphasized particularly on the issues of women’s inferior position in matters of
guardianship inheritance and marriage.

Women who joined the national movement recognized the importance of self-
reliance, swadeshi and women’s education. Such a political consciousness among
women expanded the space available to women in public sphere. Some scholars have
examined the role of women in political independence movements at micro level i.e.,
on regional basis. For example, Aparna Basu and Pravin Seth studied it in Gujarat,
Raghavendra Rao in Karnataka, and Uma Rao in Uttar Pradesh. According to Govind
Kelkar, women’s role in the freedom movement was that of the ‘helpers’ rather than
that of comrades.

Ghanshyam Shah has referred to some scholars who have pointed out women’s role in
tribal peasant and other movements in Bihar and Maharashtra. For example, Manoshi
Mitra and Indra Munshi Saldanha have analyzed women’s militant role in tribal
movements when women confronted authorities, wielding traditional weapons and
maintaining lines of supplies to the rebels in their hidden places. Sunil Sen, Peter
Casters, etc., have analyzed their role in peasants’ movements in Telangana, West
Bengal and Maharashtra. Meena Velayudhan has analyzed their role in communist-led
movement of coir workers in Kerala. Sen has pointed out women’s participation in
struggles launched by trade unions in iron ore mines in Madhya Pradesh.

During freedom struggle several women’s organizations emerged which paved the
way for increasing role of women in socio-political activities. The liberal egalitarian
ideology under the British Raj created conditions for a social awakening among Indian
women. Banga Mahila Samaj and the ladies Theosophical Society functioned at local
levels to promote modern ideals for women. Important national organizations were:
Bharat Mahila Parishad Bharat Stri Mahamandal and Women’s Indian Association,
National Council of Women in India and All India Women’s Conference and Kasturba
Gandhi National Memorial Trust. These organizations took up issues like women’s
education, abolition of evil social customs i.e., purdah, child marriage, equality and with
the support of the Congress party, demanded right of franchise and representation in
legislatures. Prominent among these organizations were All India Women’s Association
and the Indian Women’s Association. These organizations had branches in different
parts of the country. Their activities were centered mainly on issues like women’s
education, improvements in health and sanitation, right to suffrage for women and the
maternity benefits for women workers. In this manner, these organizations were
successful in initiating a discourse on gender equality and women’s rights.
The nationalist phase of women’s movement ended after independence with an
assurance to remove all forms of gender inequalities. The task of social reconstruction
undertaken subsequently further confirmed the goal. Consequentially, the women’s
movements were subdued for almost two decades till 1970s. However, during this
period women participated in large numbers in several local level struggles in different
parts of the country. The role and participation of women in the Shahada movement in
Maharashtra, the anti-price rise movements in Gujarat and Maharashtra, and the Bihar
movement led by Jayaprakash Narayan are still fresh in our memory. The twin
objectives of struggle and development were adopted by organizations like SEWA-Self
Employed Women’s Association who fought against all forms of injustice.

CONTEMPORARY WOMEN’S MOVEMENT

Contemporary Women’s Movement which started in the seventies and eighties was
very different from the earlier movements and is influenced by two factors :

1. The WMI which emerged in the seventies was greatly influenced by powerful
women movement in the USA which ignited a world-wide debate and protest by
women for their emancipation and rights. This influenced the women in India,
particularly the urban educated elite classes. There was abundant feminist
literature available in the universities, colleges and shops. At the same time there
was a lot of growth of Indian literature on socio-economic and socio-cultural
issues focusing on women. But this was limited to the urban areas.
2. The Indian movement had basically emerged due to the widespread
disillusionment of women at the grassroots level with the process and model of
development, which failed to eliminate poverty, discrimination, and injustice to
the women. By the 1970s, there was widespread disillusionment among women
groups with the process of development and the attitude has gradually started
shifting to confrontation.
3. Four movements played a crucial role in the consolidation of the WMI at the
grassroots level.

Shahada Movement :
Shahada is a Bhil adivasi settlement in Maharashtra. Many young Sarvodya workers
started the Shramik Sangathan to help the adivasis suffering due to drought and famine.
These organizations took a more militant approach, initiated land-grab, demanded
minimum wages, and held women shivirs (camps).

1. Women played active role in mobilizing the masses. As militancy developed in the
movement, women issues also began to be raised along with the wider issues.
Women applied their consciousness to the question of their oppression on the
basis of gender.
2. The movement shortly led to the anti-alcohol campaign because many men after
getting drunk used to beat their wives. Women shivirs were organized to discuss
and help each other to eradicate this evil which is one of the main causes of their
oppression.
 3. The Shahada movement started as a protest movement against landlords turned
into a movement against the sale and consumption of alcohol and attack on wife-
beaters. It was an indirect protest against violence in the family which had so far
been held as a private matter of the family. Shahada movement in a way
challenged some aspects of patriarchy.

Self Employed Women Association

The first attempt to organize a women trade union was made in Ahmadabad by a
Gandhian socialist leader, Ella Bhatt, attached to the women wing of Textile Labour
Association. She formed the Self Employed Women Association in the year 1972 to
organize the women working in various trades in the informal sector. They all suffered
due to extremely low wages, poor working conditions lack of training, harassment by
the authorities or middlemen and police.

1. The aim of the SEWA was to improve their working conditions provide technical
and economic assistance, help them to sell their products at better prices by
collective bargaining and improve their economic status.
2. The SEWA helped the women to become economically self-sufficient to give them
freedom from exploitation by assurance of regular work and access to
opportunities for development
3. Thus the SEWA helped the poor working women to improve their economic
status and become self sufficient, because economic dependence is one of the
major causes of their exploitation by men.

Anti-Price-Rise Front
The conditions of famine and drought affected the urban areas in Maharashtra, which
led to the rising prices and black-marketing. Mrinal Gore of the Socialist Party and Ahilya
Rangekar of CPI(M) formed the United Front, AntiPrice-Rise Front, to mobilize the
women in the cities against inflation. It became a mass movement demanding price
control and proper distribution of essential commodities at the fair prices. The women
groups also raided the premises of the black-marketers. It was a mass movement of
urban housewives against economic hardships affecting their daily life.

Nav Nirman Samiti

It was initially a student protest against rising prices and political disorder but became a
massive movement when middle-class women joined it Women participated in these
movements because rise in expenditure of essential commodities had adversely
affected them and hoarding and black- marketing had caused a lot of hardships to them.
The Anti-Price-Rise Front and Nav Nirman Samiti indirectly helped in crystallizing
womens identity as a group.

1. In Andhra the first feminist group formed the Progressive Organization of

Women (POW). This group stressed the existence of gender-based oppression
and organized women against it The manifesto of this group emphasized on the
 concept of equality between men and women in every walk of life. According to
them the two primary structures of exploitation are sexual division of labour on
the biological basis and the culture which provides justification to such division.
2. The year 1975 saw a sudden development of the feminist movement It was also
declared as the International Women’s Year by the United Nations. The
declaration also provided some focus on the various activates. Influenced by the
POW, the progressive women in Pune formed the Purogami Stree Sangathan and
in Bombay founded Stree MuktiSangathan.
3. Lai Nishan Party, a splinter group of the CPI, brought out a special issue on
women. Socialists organized a conference on devdasis and Muslim women. In
Hyderabad radical women students of the POW organized campaign against
sexual harassment, dowry and bride-burning. Issues such as dowry, bride-
burning, violence, and sexual harassment of the women were debated all over
India.
4. The proclamation of Emergency in 1975 and the suspension of civil liberties led to
the suspension of the WMI. But with the coming of Janata Party to power in 1977,
the movement was again revived In the later seventies and early eighties the
WMI was mainly dominated by urban groups.
5. By 1980s women groups were active all over India. They organized poster-
exhibitions; meetings, study circles and activists’ meetings to debate issues
related with women and started campaigns against them. A Forum Against Rape
was formed against the Supreme Court’s judgement in the Mathura rape case.
6. The WMI is also concerned with woman’s control over her body. It debated issues
such as women’s health, violence, rape, wife-battering, divorce, right to
maintenance, child custody, etc.
7. They are also concerned not only with the enactment of legislation in favour of
women but also with amendments to existing anti-women laws. The WMI is
equally concerned about the proper implementation of existing laws concerning
women and their rights.
8. WMI in its current phase is not only concerned with education of the women but
is also equally concerned about the right kind of education, textbooks having
women content in the proper perspective. Many universities have opened
women and development centres, introduced women-oriented courses. Women
Development Centres are conducting academic researches on women issues.
9. The WMI in is now concerned with equality which is genuine. They do not want
reservations alone but want proper share in all material resources, means of
production, education and role in decision-making process. The progressive WMI
is the outcome of changing social economic, and political reality.

The WMI is an ongoing process. It started as a protest against negative attitude towards
women and their problems. It moved on to its second phase where they denied
biological explanation of existing disparities between the two sexes, then to the third
where men and women are equal In the early nineteenth century it started with
humanitarian concerns for the suffering of the women, and need for reform. By
twentieth century the -emphasis has shifted to stressing women’s right to be treated as
useful members of society. By the late twentieth century it has moved to women’s right
to self-determination.

Forms of women’s participationin movements :

1. For social economic and political rights of specific categories of people like tribals,
peasants and industrial workers;
2. For improvements in conditions of work and autonomy to women,
3. For equal remuneration for work,
4. In renewal social movements on issues affecting men and children like abortions,
adoption of children, sexual exploitation, etc.

It could be said that Indian women’s movements worked for two goals :

1. liberation or upliftment of women, i.e., reforming social practices so as to enable

women to play more important and constructive role in society,
2. Equal right for men and women, i.e., extension of civil right enjoyed by men in the
political economic and familial spheres to women also.

Jana Everett calls the former as ‘corporate feminism’ and the latter as ‘liberal
feminism’. The strategies used by women’s bodies were: making demands by organizing
public meetings, presenting views to government officials, forming committees to
investigate conditions and holding conferences to mobilize women.

It is important to note that in course of the autonomous women’s movements in India,

a serious debate cropped up about the idea of feminism. Feminism is a complex set of
political ideologies used by the women’s movement to advance the cause of women’s
equality. Feminism is also defined as a variety of inter-related frameworks used to
observe and analyze the ways in which the social reality of gender inequality is
constructed and enforced Given this perspective of feminism, some activists questioned
the applicability of the western notion of feminism to the Indian reality. They argued
that the nature of male dominance in India is different from that in western society.
Therefore, the demands and resistance of women against males are also different.

Madhu Kishwar, activist and the editor of Manushi, has emphasized the need to look
into our traditions in this respect She argues that we should try to separate the debate
within the cultural traditions, and start using the strengths to transform the traditions.
Our cultural tradition have tremendous potential within them to combat reactionary
and anti-women ideas, if we can identify their points of strength and use them
creatively. Thus, feminism in the Indian context is not merely taken as an issue of
theoretical debate for analysis but an approach to bring about social change. We may
affirm that women s movements in India have played an important role in bringing and
driving the women s issue to the national agenda.
 Backward Classes and Dalit Movement in India
The emergence of backward castes/classes as political entities has occurred both in the
colonial and postcolonial contexts. The colonial state often distributed patronage on the
basis of caste. It made sense, therefore, for people to stay within their caste for social
and political identity in institutional life. It also influenced similarly placed caste groups
to unite themselves and to form what has been termed a ‘horizontal stretch’. Caste thus
began to lose its ritual content and become more and more secularized for political
mobilization.

Historical Background

1. The term ‘Backward Classes’ has been in use in different parts of the country
since the late 19th Century. It began to be used more widely in Madras
presidency since1872, in the princely state of Mysore since 1918, and in Bombay
presidency since1925. From the1920s a number of organizations united around
the issue of caste sprang up in different parts of the country. These included the
United Provinces Hindu Backward Classes League, All India Backward Classes
Federation, and All India Backward Classes League. In 1954,88 organizations were
counted working for the Backward Classes.
2. The increasing visibility of both Dalits and other backward classes has led to a
feeling among sections of the upper caste that they are being given special
treatment The government, they feel does not pay any heed to them because
they are numerically not significant enough. As sociologists we need to recognize
that such a ‘feeling’ does exist and then we need to scrutinize to what extent such
an impression is grounded on empirical facts. We also need to ask why earlier
generations from the so called ‘upper castes” did not think of “caste” as a living
reality of modern India.
3. By and large, when compared to the situation prevailing before independence,
the condition of all social groups, including the lowest caste and tribes, has
improved today. But by how much has it improved? It is true that in the early part
of the 21st century, the variety of occupations and professions among all caste
groups is much wider than it was in the past However, this does not change the
massive social reality that the overwhelming majority of those in the ‘highest’ or
most preferred occupations are from the upper castes, while the vast majority of
those in the menial and despised occupations belong to the lowest castes.

Backward class movements

Backward class movements emerged among depressed castes and deprived sections of
society in different parts of India with the spread of the national movement The
difference between the religious and the caste movement is that while the former
attacked evils of Hinduism, the latter exhorted its followers to seek solutions to their
problems within the framework of Hinduism, i.e., without rejecting their religion.
Nature of Backward Class Movement :

1. Protests against discrimination of various kinds,

2. To gain self-respect, honour and status,
3. Status mobility movements,
4. Caste unity movements, and
5. Caste welfare movements.

The status mobility movements can be further sub-classified as :

1. Adaptive movements,
2. Movements oriented towords cultural revolts, and
3. Counter-cultural movements.

The backward castes suffered from relative deprivation in the fields of religion,
education, economics and politics. They accepted their lot till certain external
influences provided favourable conditions to create an awakening among them.

Factors which Awaken Backward Class for Movements

1. Organization of programme by Christian Missionaries for the SCs who then

referred to as the ‘depressed classes’.
2. Other condition was the national movement which provided an ideology of
egalitarianism and supported social movements which revolved against
discrimination of any kind.
3. Third condition was that of reform movements organized by the upper castes
which initiated programmes of education and welfare for the backward or the
depressed classes. These movements were against many orthodox Brahminical
practices.
4. Finally the egalitarian system of law introduced by the British also provided an
opportunity to the backward castes to protest against discrimination.

According to M.S.A. Rao the backward caste movements for higher status were based
on three ideologies.

1. First, many Gopas in West Bengal the Gaulis in Maharashtra, the Gollas in Andhra
Pradesh and Karnataka and the Konars in Tamil Nadu claimed descent from the
Kshatriya dynasty. This also included adopting the lifestyle of higher castes in
their regions, what M.N.Srinivas has described the process of
sanskritisation. Imtiaz Ahmad has stated that this process of mobility should be
viewed as an initiative process or as protest oriented movement or as counter-
mobilization. The upper class invariably opposed such attempts. Besides, the
desire to claim high status prompted groups, they could collectively impress upon
the census officers to describe them as castes with higher ritual status. This
mechanism of mobilizing caste collectivities became significant by1931.Other
method was reinterpreting Hindu religion in search of self-determination, e.g.,Sri
 Narayan Dharma Paripalana Movement among the Ezhavas (toddy tappers) of
Kerala. Ezhavas of Kerala took an overt anti-Brahmin slant and resorted to mass
mobilization and protest to acquire their right
2. Second variety of protest ideology was the rejection of Brahminical Aryan religion
and culture, e.g., Dravida Kazhagam Movements in Tamil Nadu.
3. Third ideology was abandoning Hinduism and embracing another religion, e.g.,
Mahars in Maharashtra. Nadars of Tamil Nadu used political process of influence
to achieve high status, while Malis of Maharashtra used cultural revolt process.

According to T.K. Oommen, factors which helped classes/castes in their mobility

movements

1. Ritually castes were not at the rock bottom,

2. Economically they were well-off by local standards,
3. Their numerical strength was substantial and they had the support of rulers in
their regions, like Maharaja of Kolhapur in Maharashtra,
4. Occupational diversifications,
5. Exposure to education, urbanization,
6. Outstanding and charismatic leadership.

Of course, many castes did not succeed in achieving higher status within the Hindu
fold which prompted them to embrace Buddhism. Few castes achieved this remaining
within Hindu fold through countercultural movements. The counter-cultural
movements referred to

1. Developing a counter-culture against caste Hindus, particularly Brahminical

supremacy; but remaining within the Hindu fold This process was adopted by
Dravidian movements of Tamil Nadu, and
2. Building a new parallel culture of their own rather than getting themselves
adsorbed in the ‘mainstream’ culture; or merely protesting against it The Dalit
Panther movement of Maharashtra exemplified this trend.

The Dravidian movement in the South developed in two phases: anti-Brahmin (caste)
phase and antinorth (region) phase. In the first phase, the Dravidians identified
Brahmins as aliens (Aryans) and intruders into Dravidian. They also ridiculed the
Brahmin-created puranas and varnashram dharma irrational They created a counter-
culture which was Dravidian in nature, by denouncing Brahmanicial practices of idol
worship, child marriage and enforced widowhood Gradually, this movement shifted its
goal from anti-Brahminism to North Indian domination with the goal of establishing a
sovereign Dravidian State.

While the Dravidian movement was confined to Tamil Nadu, Dalit Panthers movement
spread from urban Maharashtra to other states. Its main emphasis was on intellectual
awakening and creating consciousness among the oppressed The movement of Mahars
in Maharashtra is also worth-mentioning here. First, they used countercultural strategy
of abandoning Hinduism altogether, but, later on; they adopted new political strategy
for their uplift.
Though the movements of backward castes succeeded in achieving their goals only
partially, yet they provided a mobilization, a model to other castes of forming
associations for their mobilization activities. But the associations of forward castes were
mainly reform-oriented opposing child marriage, and encouraging widow remarriage,
women s education, occupational diversification, education and breaking social barriers
between numerous castes.

Present Situation : Government’s policy of protective discrimination for the Backward

castes prompted them to fight for their interests and welfare by organizing themselves
politically instead of issuing of census appeals, sanskritisation, cultural revolts or the
building of counter-cultures. This political strategy aimed at getting them enlisted as SCs
and OBCs getting the time-period of reservation extended and insisting on faithful
implementation of government policies and programmes. After the implementation of
Mandal Commission’s recommendations in August 1990 and the establishment of the
Minority Commissions in various states, large number of castes are trying for
recognition as OBCs and getting the reserved quota (15% for SCs and 27% for OBCs)
seats.

DALIT MOVEMENT
Broadly speaking, the untouchables of the Hindu caste system are officially known as
the Scheduled Castes. The same category of castes is also called Harijan, the children of
God, a term coined by Mahatma Gandhi in 1933. However, the word harijan has now
acquired a negative meaning. The members of these castes prefer to be called dalit, the
oppressed.

1. We use the term dalit movements and social movements against

untouchability led by Mahatma Gandhi. Other nationalist movements like
peasant and reform movements, dalit movements also emerged during the pre-
Independence period These movements have been examined keeping them
under two broader categories, non-Brahman movements and dalit movements.
2. While the anti-caste non-Brahman movements were strong in Maharashtra and
Tamil Nadu, dalit movements were spread all over the country. The Adi Dharma
movements in Punjab, the Satnami movement in Uttar Pradesh, Narayan Guru
movements in Kerala and Adi-Dravida movements in Tamil Nadu have been some
of the major Dalit movements. The larger anti-caste movements were led by
prominent figures like Jyotiba Phule, Babasaheb Ambedkar and E.V. Ramaswami
Periyar. They all attacked the system of exploitation at all levels.
3. According to Ghanshyam Shah there has not been a single, unified Dalit
movement in the country now or in the past. Different movements have
highlighted different issues related to Dalits, around different ideologies.
However, all of them assert a Dalit identity though the meaning may not be
identical or precise for everyone. Notwithstanding differences in the nature of
Dalit movements and the meaning of identity, there has been a common quest
for equality, self-dignity and eradication of untouchability. This can be seen in the
Satnami Movement of the Chamars in the Chhattisgarh plains in eastern MP, Adi
 Dharma Movement in Punjab, the Mahar Movement in Maharashtra, the socio-
political mobilization among the Jatavas of Agra and the Anti Brahman Movement
in south India.
4. The dalit movement is necessarily linked with the name of Dr. Ambedkar. He
was the historical leader and the founder of its ideology. Initially, the movement
was confined to Maharashtra, but during 1930s and 1940s it spread to different
parts of the country. Although the organizations, such as the Scheduled Caste
Federation and its successor, the Republican Party, formed by Dr. Ambedkar,
never attained all India status, but their ideas had an impact on various local level
dalit movements in different parts of the country. The growth of these
movements reflects the increasing self-consciousness of the group. Thus, dalits
have emerged as a distinct political group. They are no longer politically
dependent upon the upper castes. Eventually, they have made an impact on the
structure of power in India.
5. Another important trend in the dalit movement is manifested in the emergence
of the Dalit Panther Movement which was launched by dalits of Maharashtra in
the early 1970s. It was initially confined to the urban areas of Maharashtra but
has subsequently spread to several other states. The Dalit Panthers denounced
the dominant culture and attempt to articulate an alternative, cultural identity of
the oppressed classes. To propagate their ideas they have been publishing poems,
stories and plays, which are now popularly known as dalit literature and are used
to challenge the intellectual tradition of the upper caste Hindus.
6. The most vital consequence of these movements has been the consolidation of
dalit identity. Then pressure created by the mobalization of the dalits has led to
amelioration of their social conditions. Compared to their conditions a decade
ago, their social and economic position has relatively improved. The emancipation
of dalits is essentially linked with their freedom from the bondage to the existing
economic systems. As the economic system is still monopolized by the upper
castes, their position in the caste as well as class system continues to be at the
lower end.

Social movements of Dalits show a particular character. The movements cannot be

explained satisfactorily by reference to economic exploitations alone or political
oppression, although these dimensions are important.

1. This is a struggle for recognition as fellow human beings.

2. It is a struggle for self-confidence and a space for self-determination.
3. It is a struggle for abolition of stigmatization, that unsociability implied
4. It has been called a struggle to be touched

The word Dalit is commonly used in Marathi, Hindi, Gujrarati and many other Indian
languages, meaning the poor and oppressed persons. It was first used in the new
context in Marathi by neo-Buddhist activists, the followers of Babasaheb Ambedkar in
the early1970s. It refers to those who have been broken, ground down by those above
them in a deliberate way. There is, in the word itself, inherent denial due to pollution,
karma and justified caste hierarchy.
Dalit writers are insistent on using their own imageries and expressions rooted in their
own experiences and perceptions. Many felt that the high flown social imageries of
mainstream society would hide the truth rather than reveal it Dalit literature gives a call
for social and cultural revolt While some emphasis the cultural struggle for dignity and
identity others also bring in the structural features of society including the economic
dimensions.

In the contemporary period the Dalit movement has unquestionably acquired a place
in the public sphere that cannot be ignored. This has been accompanied by a growing
body of Dalit literature. Dalit writers are insistent on using their own imageries and
expressions rooted in their own experiences and perceptions. Many felt that the high
flown social imageries of mainstream society would hide the truth rather than reveal it
Dalit literature gives a call for social and cultural revolt While some emphasis the
cultural struggle for dignity and identity others also bring in the structural features of
society including the economic dimensions.

Environmental Movements in India

For much of the modern period, the greatest emphasis has been laid on development.
Over the decades there has been a great deal of concern about the unchecked use of
natural resources and a model of development that creates new needs that further
demands greater exploitation of the already depleted natural resources. This models of
development has also been critiqued for assuming that all sections of people will be
beneficiaries of development. Thus big dams displace people from their homes and
sources of livelihood. Industries displace agriculturalists from their homes and
livelihood. The impact of industrial pollution is yet another story. Here we take
examples of an ecological movement to examine the many issues that are interlinked in
an ecological movement.

1. The Chipko movement, an example of the ecological movement, in the

Himalayan foothills is a good example of such intermingled interests and
ideologies. According to Ramachandra Guha in his book Unquiet Woods, villagers
rallied together to save the oak and rhododendron forests near their villages.
When government forest contractors came to cut down the trees, villagers,
including large numbers of women, stepped forward to hug the trees to prevent
their being felled At stake was the question of villagers subsistence. All of them
relied on the forest to get firewood fodder and other daily necessities. This
conflict placed the livelihood needs of poor villagers against the government’s
desire to generate revenues from selling timber. The economy of subsistence was
pitted against the economy of profit.
2. Along with this issue of social inequality (villagers versus a government that
represented commercial, capitalist interests), the Chipko movement also raised
the issue of ecological sustainability. Cutting down natural forests was a form of
environmental destruction that had resulted in devastating floods and landslides
in the region. For the villagers, these ‘red’ and green’ issues were inter-linked
While their survival depended on the survival of the forest, they also valued the
forest for its own sake as a form of ecological wealth that benefits all.
 3. In addition, the Chipko movement also expressed the resentment of hill
villagers against a distant government headquartered in the plains that seemed
indifferent and hostile to their concerns. So concerns about economy, ecology
and political representation underlay the Chipko movement.

Gadgil and Guha in their ‘This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India, 1992’
highlight that though environmental movements may be new, environmental
consciousness is a historical fact in India. The nexus of nature and culture was first
disturbed in India during colonial rule when forests were heavily exploited and
industrialization started. Since early displaced were tribals who also had deep affinity
with forests for cultural reasons also, they were perhaps the pioneers and unsung
heroes of environmental movement in India.

According to Madhav Gadgil, environmental movements have issues like–forest and

land related rights, dams, commercial exploitation of mines, and right over marine
resources etc. Various other environmental issues can be enumerated as – air pollution,
water pollution, solid waste, resource depletion, soil degradation, desertification,
deforestation, genetically modified foods, loss of biodiversity, river pollution, man-
animal conflicts, environmental disasters like Uttarakhand floods of 2013 and industrial
disasters like Bhopal tragedy, Chernobyl accident and so on. Certain environmental
concerns sometimes appear to be universal concerns, not particular to specific social
groups. For instance, reducing air pollution or protecting biodiversity seem to be in the
public interest.

Environmental movements gained currency in 1970s when New Social Movements were
in vogue. At that time growing developmental needs were identified as having adverse
impact on environment. In the same decade, UN conference was held in Stockholm and
idea of sustainable development gained ground for the first time at international level.

Environmental movements are classified as –

1. Pure environmental movements based on idea of conservation. Its examples are

– air pollution movement in Delhi, movement against water pollution in Chennai
due to leather industry. They were mainly concentrated in urban areas and
mainly organized by NGOs and leadership was provided elite or middle class
intelligentsia.
2. Combined movements like Tehri movement led by Sundar Bahugune, Chipko
Movement, 1973 led by Chandi Prasad Bhat, Narmada Bachao Andolan, 1988 led
by Medha Patker etc which also included peripheral issues like livelihood, rights
of the poor and deprived etc also. Paani Panchayats movement in Ralegan Siddhi
in Maharashtra also addressed issue of poverty along with water conservation.
Apart from these, activities of the ‘waterman’ Rajender Singh of Gujarat, Save
Chilka Campaign, Tarun Bharat Sangh in Alwar for water conservation are other
examples of successful movements.
Environmental movements are also classified on the basis of the strategy employed by
them – Gandhian, Marxian, reconstructive which suggest alternative as well. Gadgil and
Guha identify four
broad strands within the environmental movements in India based on vision, ideology
and strategy.

In wake of global warming, ozone depletion, bio-diversity loss and inequitable

development, environmental movements have taken a shape of global social movement
industry which has tremendously helped in raising awareness and putting pressure on
national governments. Such movements have tried to build a consensus between
developmental needs and environmental protection. As a result, government in India
has also taken many steps from time to time to address the issues raised by such
movements. Courts have also acted on PILs to address environmental problems and
right to healthy environment is considered as a part of ‘right to life’ by the courts.
Introduction of CNG vehicles in Delhi was such an instance of judicial activism on
environmental issues. Supreme Court has also established ‘Green Benches’ to address
environmental issues. Rajasthan has launched Rain Water harvesting drives.
Government has launched a ‘National Environmental Policy, 2005’ to address many of
the issues raised by such movements. ‘Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest
Dweller’s (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006’ has also tried to address the issue of
livelihood as well along with issue of conservation.

We may now conclude our discussion on social movements by stating that social
movements in India mainly focused either.

1. On achieving system stability by arresting the onslaught of rapid social change

and reinforcing the existing values and norms and
2. Attempting system change through the destruction and replacement of old and
induction of new structures.

Ethnicity and Identity Movements in India

For a proper understanding of ethnic movement it is necessary to understand what we
mean by ethnicity as such movements are associated with it. Ethnicity denotes towards
identification of a group of people on the basis of certain criteria or markers which
they are supposed to share with each other. These markers include culture, race,
language, religion, customs, history, economic experiences, etc. For a group of people
to share such attributes another requirement is that they get mobilized into some
collective action for attainment of certain demands. The number of markers or
attributes which form the basis of an ethnic group depends on the choice of these
factors by the ethnic group or its leadership. But there are differences among the
scholars regarding the number of attributes which constitute an ethnic group.
 1. Scholars in India generally consider that mobilization as ethnic which is based
on the multiple attributes – language, religion, culture, history, economy,
etc. For example, the language based mobilization is considered as linguistic
mobilization and the groups as such are considered the linguistic groups. Similarly
caste based mobilization is considered as dalit, backward or any other caste
mobilization. In India there is religion-based mobilization. But the scholars who
follow American and European traditions categories even the mobilization based
on the single attribute – language, religion, caste, etc., as ethnic mobilization.
They also do not distinguish between the movement and ethnic mobilization. For
example, Paul R. Brass uses ethnic and communal mobilization interchangeably.
2. On the other hand, Dipankar Gupta in his book The Context of Ethnicity: The Sikh
Identity in a Comparative Perspective differentiates between communalism and
ethnicity. He argues that the ethnic mobilization is related to the nation-state –
the territory and the sovereignty. And the communal mobilization does not
involve the nation-state. It is confined to the government and two or more
communities in the conflict, one of which alleges that the government
discriminates against it in preference to the other. The point in dispute could be
job, specific rights of the communities, etc. According to him in the ethnic
mobilization the loyalty of one ethnic group to the reference of nation-state is
questioned. It is not so in the case of communal mobilization. Also, the group
identities are not permanent. In the changing context of time and space an ethnic
identity can become communal and vice versa. However, the general tendency
among the scholars is to consider the multi-attributes mobilization of the
communities as ethnic.
3. Ethnicity is also a relative term. An ethnic group differentiates itself from
another groups which also share certain attributes which are different from it. It
feels that it has to preserve its identity and interests from the perceived or real
threats of other ethnic groups and institutions, and processes associated of the
cultural identities of the ethnic groups and their other interests. Another
concept which is related to the ethnicity, nationalities or even nations they are
used interchangeably. If one section of scholars considers a multiple-marker
based mobilization as ethnic, there are others which call these as the mobilization
of the nations or the nationalities. Therefore, in the light of the literature terms
ethnicity and nationalities/nations are used interchangeably.

Ethnic Movements During Post Independence Period in India

1. Almost all the major regions of the country have witnessed ethnic movements.
They take the forms of movements for regional autonomy, for creation of
separate states, demand for secession or insurgency. These manifestations of
ethnic movements are also called self-determination movements. In several cases
ethnic movements give rise to conflicts or riots on the lines of ethnic divide based
on all or some the markers – tribe, caste, language, religion, etc., the self-
determination movements actually question the nation-state building model
which was introduced by the Independent India.
 2. Known as Nehruvian or the Mahalanobis model this model presumed that in
the course of development or modernization the identities formed on the basis
of ascriptive factors – language, caste, tribe and religion will disappear and the
development will take place on the secular lines. But much before the effect of
this model could be felt, it was questioned on the all major consideration –
language, region and nationality. Although the movements started with the
demand based on single marker like language or culture, they drew support of
people who shared more than one attribute in a particular region. Movements
Started with :
3. The rejection of the Indian Constitution by the Nagas in the North-East, it spread
in the form of secessioist movement.
4. Dravidian ethnic movement and demand for the formation of linguistic states,
5. Movement of for creation of separate state of Andhra Pradesh in South,
6. Movements in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab,
7. Shiv Sena against South Indians in Mumbai.

In Tamil Nadu following the legacy of E.V. Ramaswami Naicker three issues formed the
basis of ethnic
movement in the first two decades following independence –

1. Language,
2. Dravidian culture,and
3. Religion.

1. The leadership of the movement argued that imposition of the North Indian
Hindi language; Brahminical Hindu religion and Aryan culture were detrimental
to the development of the Dravidian identity. Therefore, the Tamil ethnic
movement had demanded, stopping of the imposition of Hindu language
secession from India. However, towards the end of the1960s the demand for
secession was given up by the Tamil nationality ethnic group. It then shifts its
demand to get autonomy to the states. Though the Dravidian assertion in India
has become milder since the late 1960s, sentiments against the imposition of
Hindi language still are important factors of mobilization there. In the light of the
movements and violence generated by them prompted S. Harrison to describe
the decades of the 1950s-1960s as the “most dangerous decades”?
2. The state of Andhra was initially reluctant to reconsider the demand for the
linguistic reorganization of the state. But it had to consider this demand following
the death of a Gandhian P. Srinivasulu who died of hunger strike demanding a
linguistic state of Andhra Pradesh. Government’s acceptance of demand to create
Andhra Pradesh led to the reorganization of the states on the linguistic
basisin1953. But reorganization of the state did not halt the demand for the
separate states.

The ethnic movement in Punjab was based on three types of issues – regional
religious and economic. Spearheaded by the Akali Dal the leadership in Punjab argued
that since Sikhs follow a separate religion and speak different language, they should get
a separate state. On some occasions, it got reflected in the communal divide between
the Hindus and Sikhs in the state, resulting in the ethnic conflict. They launched a
Punjabi Suba movement during the 1950s and 1960s demanding a separate state of
Punjab for them. Bakiev Raj Nayar observes that Akali Dal’s strategy during the Punjabi
Suba movement included constitutional means like memoranda, rallies and marches,
penetration into the Congress organization in order to influence the party in favour of a
separate state, and, agitational means which included marches to shrines, intimidation
and force. As a result of the Punjabi Suba movement, Punjab was created as separate
state on November 1, 1966.

1. According to Paul R. Brass, the attitude of the central government towards the
ethnic conflicts or mobilization in the 1950s and 1960s was marked by an
unwritten code – aversion to the demands for creation of the states on the
religious grounds, no concession to the demands of the linguistic, regional or
other culturally defined groups, no concession to groups involved in ethnic
dispute unless there was support to the demand from both groups involved in
the conflict. In his opinion, demand for creation of a separate state of Punjab was
accepted only when there was also a demand for creation of the separate state of
Haryana for Hindi-speaking population of the same state.
2. The ethnic movement in Punjab again arose in the 1980s. It challenged the
sovereignty of the Indian state the notion of India as a nation-state. It sought to
establish a sovereign state of Khalistan, to be based on the tenets of
Sikhism. The Khalistan movement and the issues related to were generally
referred to as “Punjab Crisis”. The movement became violent and came to be
identified with terrorism in the popular, academic and political discourse. The
advocates of the Khalistan movement argued that Sikhs, as followers of the
minority religion have been discriminated in India despite their contribution to
Indian economy and army. The rise of Khalistan movement, terrorism or the
rioting in the 1980s has been a sequence to the political developments in the
country which preceded it.
3. The 1970s were marked by the challenge of the Akali Dal to the dominance of
the Congress in Punjab. In order to meet this challenge the Congress took the
help of Sikh religious leader Sant Jarnail Singh Bhinderanwale in the 1980
Legislative assembly elections in Punjab. The use of services of Bhinderanwale
had its cultural and political implication for the country and the state. It
encouraged Bhinderanwale to assert his authority independently and assume the
leadership of the Khalistan movement. Not only a large number of Sikh youths
were attracted to the movement, the movement also received support of the
foreign forces. The state responded with the Operation Blue Star sending of the
armed forces to nab terrorists who were hiding in the Golden Temple at Amritsar
including Sant Bhinderanwale. This ultimately led to the assassination of Indira
Gandhi. The Khalistan movement also resulted in the ethnic divide between the
Hindus and Sikhs in Punjab.
The scholars have explained the ethnic movement of the 1970s and 1980s in Punjab in
terms of
socio-economic and political factors.

1. Those who explain it in terms of the socio-economic factors follow the Marxian
perspective. They argue that the ‘Punjab Crisis” occurred in the wake of green
revolution; inability of the Sikh farmers to meet the rising cost of investment in
agriculture, rising unemployment among the youth and growth of the
consumerist culture which gave rise to the feeling of losing Sikh identity, etc.,
contributed to the rise of militancy in Punjab.
2. The scholars who give the political explanation find the socio-economic
explanation inadequate. They argue that the Punjab crisis was the result of a
manipulation of the religion and problems of the people by the politicians. The
basis of ethnic movement in Jammu and Kashmir is language, religion and
geographical location.
3. A section of people of the state have argued since the ethnic composition of
state in terms of language, religion and geography is different from the
dominant ethnic groups in the country, region should be treated differently.
Some of them have not considered themselves as members of the Union of
India. As a result, they have demanded secession from India, some have
advocated merger with Pakistan, some have demanded a separate state for the
region and some have advocated merger of two Kashmirs – one occupied by
Pakistan and other of India, to become a single state. Supporters of this
perspective have launched insurgency involving violence and loss human beings
and material. They are supported by the foreign forces, especially Pakistan. The
popular leadership in the state has also been divided on the issue of relationship
of the state with the nation-state. Hari Singh, the ruler of the Jammu and Kashmir
initially opposed the accession of the state into the union of India. But he had to
agree to it in the face of attack of the Pakistan forces Sheikh Abdullah had
supported the merger of the state with Union of India. But in the course of time
he wavered on the issue. He formed Plebiscite Front, which led to his
incarceration by the central government from 1953 till 1964.

According to Balraj Puri the reasons for the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir include:
attitude of the central government, the lack of opposition, unemployment and other
problems of people, cold war and Pakistan. Even within Jammu and Kashmir there are
ethnic movements by the smaller groups in Laddakh and Jammu and Kashmir,
demanding autonomy within the state of Jammu and Kashmir. These regions alleged
that they are discriminated against by the dominant religious communities and
prosperous regions- Muslims of Kashmir.

TRIBAL ETHNIC AND IDENTITY MOVEMENTS

The tribals provide the most appropriate examples of the ethnic movements in the
country. In their case, almost all factors, both real and imagined, which the tribal
communities share among themselves – culture, customs, language, race, religion
(indigenous or otherwise), economic issues, contribute to their mobilization. Even if
the their mobilization starts with a single marker, it is the multiple markers which
come to play their roles in the due course. Tribal ethnic movements find their
expression in all forms, – insurgency, protection of the culture and economy of the
“sons of the soil” from the outside exploiters, secession from the Union of India,
autonomy movements / demand for the separate state, and, ethnic conflicts and riots.

The most common issues which account for the tribals ethnic mobilization are
perceived or real threat to their indigenous culture and economy including the natural
resources like mineral, forest and modern market opportunities by the
outsiders. Numerous uprising of tribals have taken place beginning with one in Bihar,
followed by many revolts in Andhra Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal
Pradesh, Assam, Mizoram and Nagaland The important tribes involved in revolt in the
nineteenth century were Mizos, Kols, Mundas, Daflas, Khasi and Garo, Kacharis and
Kondhas.

Some scholars like Desai, Gough and Guha have treated tribal movements after
independence as peasant movements, but K.S. Singh has criticized such approach
because of the nature of tribals’ social and political organization, their relative social
isolation from the mainstream, their leadership pattern and the modus operandi of
their political mobilization. Tribals’ community consciousness is strong. Tribal
movements were not only agrarian but also forest-based Some revolts were ethnic in
nature as
these were directed against zamindars, money lenders petty government officials.
When tribals were unable to pay their loan or the interest thereon, money-lenders and
landlords usurped their lands. The tribals thus became tenants on their own land and
sometimes even bonded labourers. The police and the revenue officers never helped
them. On the contrary, they also used the tribals for personal and government work
without any payment The courts were not only ignorant of the tribal agrarian system
and customs but also were unaware of the plight of the tribals. All these factors of land
alienation, usurpation, forced labour, minimum wages and land grabbing compelled
many tribes like Munda, Santhals, kol, Bhils, Warli, etc., in many regions like Assam,
Orissa, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra to revolt.

The management of forests also led some tribes to revolt, as forests in some regions
are the main sources of their livelihood. The British government had introduced certain
legislations permitting merchants and contractors to cut the forests. These rules not
only deprived the tribals of several forest officials. This led tribes in Andhra Pradesh and
some other areas to launch movements.

Raghavaiah in his analysis in 1971of revolts from 1778 to 1970 listed 70 revolts and gave
their chronology. The Anthropological Survey of India in their survey in 1976 of tribal
movements identified 36 on-going tribal movements in India. It was said that through
these revolts were neither numerous nor gravely frequent, yet there was scarcely any
major tribe in middle or eastern India which at some time in the last 150 years had not
resorted to launching movements to register their protest and despair. Some studies on
tribal movements have been conducted and reported in North-East and Central India.
However, there were a significant number of movements or none at all among the
tribals of the southern states. This is so because the tribes down south are too primitive,
too small in number, and too isolated in their habitat to organize movements, in spite of
their exploitation and the resultant discontent L.K. Mahapatra also has observed that
we do not find any significant social religious, status-mobility, or political movement
among the numerically small and migratory tribes.

After independence, the tribal movements may be classified into :

1. Movements due to exploitation by outsiders (like those of the Santhals and

Mundas),
2. Movements due to economic deprivation (like those of the Gonds in Madhya
Pradesh and the Mahars in Andhra Pradesh), and
3. Movements due to separatist tendencies (like those of the Nagas and Mizos). The
tribal movements may also be classified on the basis of their orientation into four
types:
4. Movements seeking political autonomy and formation of a state (Nagas, Mizos,
Jharkhand),
5. Agrarian movements,
6. Forest- based movements, and
7. Socio-religious or socio-cultural movements (the Bhagat movement among Bhils
of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, movements among tribals of south Gujarat or
Raghunath Murmu’s movement among the Santhals).

Mahapatra has classified tribal movements in three groups: reactionary, conservative

and revolutionary.

1. The reactionary movements tries to bring back ‘the good old days’,
2. The conservative movement tries to maintain the status quo.
3. The revolutionary or the revisionary movements are those which are organized
for ‘improvement’ or ‘purification’ of the cultural or social by eliminating evil
customs, beliefs or institutions.

Surajit Sinha has classified movements into five groups :

1. Ethnic rebellion,
2. Reform movements,
3. Political autonomy movements within the Indian Union,
4. Secessionist movements, and
5. Agrarian unrest

S.M. Dube has classified them in four categories :

1. Religious and social reform movements,

2. Movements for separate statehood,
 3. Insurgent movements, and
4. Cultural rights movements.

Ghanshyam Shah has classified them in three groups: ethnic, agrarian and political. If
we take into consideration all the tribal movements, including the Naga revolution
(which started in 1948 and continued up to 1972), the Mizo movement (guerrilla
warfare which ended with the formation of Meghalaya state in April 1970, created out
of Assam and Mizoram in 1972), the Gond Raj movement (of Gonds of Madhya Pradesh
and Maharashtra, started in 1941for a separate state and reaching its peak in 1962-63),
the Naxalite movements (of the tribals in Bihar, West Bengal Andhra Pradesh and
Assam),the agrarian movements (of the Gonds and the Bhils in Madhya Pradesh), and
the forest-based movements (of the Gonds for getting customary rights in forests), it
could be said that the tribal unrest and resultant movements were mainly movements
launched for liberation from

1. Oppression and discrimination,

2. Neglect and backwardness, and
3. A government which was callous to the tribals’ plight of poverty, hunger,
unemployment and exploitation.

Tribal movements after independence have been classified by K.S. Singh in four
categories: agrarian, sanskritisation, cultural and political In the first phases before
independence, K.S.Singh holds that in their effort to introduce British Administration in
the tribal areas, the British came in conflict with the tribal chiefs. The rebellious tribal
leaders revolted against the British and exhorted their followers to drive out the
outsiders. Such movements were launched by Oraon, Mundas, etc., in Madhya Pradesh,
Gujarat and North-East India. After independence, tribal movements were launched
either for maintaining cultural identity or for demanding a separate state or for
asserting their statues as caste Hindus through sanskritisation process or on economic
issues.

Stephen Fuchs has dealt with a large number of first types of tribal movements. He has
called them messianic movements led by rebellious persons gifted with abilities for
assuming the role of a Messiah, or these gifted people (Messiahs) are this messianic role
by the community when it faces economic distress, social or political oppression. Fuchs
has suggested that success of such a movement would depend upon the individual
ability of charismatic leaders, thereby ignoring the relevance of system characteristics.
Fuchs’ analysis of movements is mostly descriptive which lists host of factors for the
success or failure of these movements. None of them propose a theoretical framework.

Not many studies have been conducted on the political-separatist dimension in

Nagaland, Mizoram, Chhotanagpur and Madhya Pradesh. The Jharkhand movement in
Bihar is a movement of tribal communities consisting of settled agriculturalists which
are sensitized to vaishnavism. Further, Chhotanagpur was the most advanced of the
tribal regions in terms of literacy, political consciousness and industrial progress.
Christian Missions influenced the lives of tribals here substantially. These Missions
promoted education, planted the notion of private rights in land, and emphasized a
sence of separateness from the rest The Jharkhand movement after 1950 developed in
phases-from ethnicity to regionalism (Singh). Of these, the phase (1963-1975) after the
fourth general elations is characterized by fragmentation of the Jharkhand party and
fictionalization of tribal political The BJP-led government at the Centre announced in
1998 the creation of two tribal states-one in Bihar and another in Madhya Pradesh.

B. K. Roy Burman has distinguished between prevocational and substantial movements

among tribes. Proto-national movements emerges when tribes experience a
transformation from tribal level of interaction. In contrast, sub-national movements
area product of social disorganization pioneered by acculturated elite engaged in
contraction of relationship and not exclusion of it with the outside world While proto-
nationalism results from exclusion expansion of the orbit of development, sub-
nationalism is the result of disparities of developments. Sub-nationalism is based on the
coercive power of the community.

L.K.Mahapatra in his study of tribal movements based on a time-sequence and the

nature of stimulus in their existence noted certain general tendencies.

1. Most reformist tribal movements, although initiated by charismatic leaders,

gradually led to rationalization and institutionalization, affecting structure but not
always affecting basic changes.
2. Tribal movements, irrespective of their goal orientation, invariably appeared
among the numerically strong, usually settled agriculturalists and economically
well-off tribals.
3. Primitive and small tribals directly took to large-scale conversion and separatist
tendencies are marked amongst them.
4. Given the geographical distribution, a pan- Indian tribes movement is unlikely to
emerge.
5. Democratic politics among tribes is fragmentary which in turn blocks the
emergence of civil collectivism.

Concludingly it can be said that when the law does not help tribals, when the
government remains callous, and the police fails to protect them even harasses them,
they take to arms against their exploiters. These movements indicate that tribals
adopted two paths: non-violent path of bargaining and negotiating with the
government and using a variety of pressure tactics without resorting to violence/revolts,
and militant path of revolts or mass struggles based on developing the fighting power of
the exploited/oppressed tribal strata. The consequences of both these paths are
different One indicates struggle oriented to reforms, while the other indicates structural
transformation of the community. The fact that tribals continue to be faced with
problems and also continue to feel discontented and deprived brings to the fore the
conclusion that both paths have not helped them to achieve their goals.
 Population Dynamics
Population Size, Growth, Composition and Distribution in India
India is the second most populous country in the world after china, with a total
population of 121 crores according to the Census of 2011. The growth rate of India’s
population has not always been very high. Out of every 100 persons in the world 15 are
Indians, that is, every seventh person is an Indian. A total of 17.5 per cent of the
world’s population lives in India, inhabiting only 2.4 per cent of the total land area of
the world. The growth of India’s population has been phenomenal compared to that of
other countries and particularly in relation to the growth of necessary resources and
infrastructure required to meet the pressure of the growing population.

1. Between 1901-1951 the average annual growth rate did not exceed 1.33%, a
modest rate of growth.
2. In fact between 1911 and 1921 there was a negative rate of growth of -0.03%.
This was because of the influenza epidemic during1918-19 which killed about12.5
million persons or 5% of the total population of the country (Visaria and Visaria).
3. The growth rate of population substantially increased after independence from
British rule going up to 2.2% during1961-1981.
4. Since then although the annual growth rate has decreased it remains one of the
highest in the developing world the comparative movement of the crude birth
and death rates. The impact of demographic transition phase is found in the
decade of 1921 to 1931.

The growth of India’s population has been phenomenal compared to that of other
countries and particularly in relation to the growth of necessary resources and
infrastructure required to meet the pressure of the growing population.

From 1971to 2001, it increased from 548 million to 1029 million. It is two and a
halftimes the population of the whole of Africa. During the decade the growth was
equivalent to the half of the population of Canada and the United States.

1. Every year, a whole Malaysia or Australia is added to India’s population. Thus, the
problem of population growth is really a serious one as the increases in
employment opportunities and other resources cannot keep up with increase in
population.
2. Growth rate was not so high up to 1921.However, from 1921 there was a steady
increase till 1951.From 1951 onwards the growth rate has been increasing at an
alarming rate. The pre 1921 period had high death rate due to plague, malaria,
influenza and famine. In post-independence India, health hazards have been
considerably curbed, which has resulted in increased population growth. Since
1951, the population of India has nearly tripled. The growth has been higher in
the northern zone compared to other areas, particularly the southern states.

The density of population has increased from 72 persons per square kilometer in 1901
to 267 persons in 1991 and 325 persons in 2001. The density of populations is 13
persons per square kilometer in Arunachal Pradesh, followed by Mizoram. West Bengal
had the maximum density, followed by Bihar.

1. It is true that India is predominantly a country of villages. Out of India’s total

population, 72.2 per cent lived in villages and 27.8 per cent were in urban areas
as per 2001 census. This increased to 25.7 per cent in 1991 and further it went
up to 27.7 per cent in 2001. However, it is significant to note that the increase in
the urban population has been far more than that of rural population. Over 60
per cent of the urban population lived in 216 agglomerations and cities with
population of one lakh and above. The increase in urban population is migration
from rural areas, as the cities and towns offer more job opportunities, better
amenities and higher standards of living.
2. Hindus account for 79.8 per cent of the total population and Muslims of 14.23
per cent Christians are the third major group. Sikhs are mainly concentrated in
Punjab. Jains and Buddhists as social groups are more like Hindus. The census
provides details based on age, sex, martial status, literacy, occupation, etc.
3. The sex composition of India’s population shows that there are fewer females
than males. Like the male-female ratio, the age structure of India’s population
has remained almost stable during the last six decades. The reason is that
natural calamities and man-made problem like wars have not affected India’s
populations on any large scale. Nearly 40 per cent of India’s population consists
of those below 15 years of age and about 5 to 6 per cent of 60 years and
above. This shows that nearly half of India’s population is dependent upon those
who are earners. The dependency of such a large part of the population adversely
affects economic and social development Saving and investment become almost
negligible because almost entire income is spent on consumption. Problems of
unemployment, migration and mobility are also related to the age composition of
India’s population.

Components of Population Growth: Birth, Death, Migration

Before 1931, both death rates and birth rates are high, whereas, after this transitional
moment the death rates fall sharply but the birth rate only falls slightly.The principal
reasons for the decline in the death rate after 1921 were

1. Increased levels of control over famines and epidemic diseases. The later cause
was perhaps the most important. The major epidemic diseases in the past were
fevers of various sorts, plague, smallpox and cholera. But the single biggest
epidemic was the influenza epidemic of 1918-19, which killed as many as 125 lakh
people, or about 5% of the total population of India at that time.
2. Improvements in medical cures for these diseases, programmes for mass
vaccination, and efforts to improve sanitation helped to control
epidemics. However, diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, diarrhoea and dysentery
continue to kill people even today, although the numbers are nowhere as high as
they used to be in the epidemics of the past Surat witnessed a small epidemic of
plague in September 1994, while dengue and chikungunya epidemics have been
reported in various parts of the country in 2006.
 3. Famines were also a major and recurring source of increased mortality. Famines
were cause by high levels of continuing poverty and malnutrition in an agro
climatic environment that was very vulnerable to variations in rainfall. Lack of
adequate means of transportation and communication as well as inadequate
efforts on the part of the state were some of the factors responsible for famines.
4. However; as scholars like Amartya Sen and others have shown, famines were not
necessarily due to fall in food grains production; they were also caused by a
failure of entitlements’, or the inability of people to buy or otherwise obtain food
5. Substantial improvements in productivity of Indian agriculture (specially
through the expansion of irrigation); improved means of communication; and
more vigorous relief and preventive measures by the state have all helped to
drastically reduce deaths from famine.

Nevertheless, starvation deaths are still reported from some backward region of the
country. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is the latest state initiative to
tackle the problem of hunger and starvation in rural areas.

Unlike the death rate, the birth rate has not registered a sharp fall. This is because

1. The birth rate is a socio-cultural phenomenon that is relatively slow to change.

2. By and large, increased level of prosperity exerts a strong downward pull on the
birth rate. Once infant mortality rates decline, and there is an overall increase in
levels of education and awareness, family size begins to fall.
3. There are very wide variations in the fertility rates across the states of
India. Some states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu have managed to bring down their
fertility rates (TFR) to 2.1 and 1.8 respectively. This means that the average
woman in Tamil Nadu produces only 2.1 children, which is the ‘replacement level’
(required to replace herself and her spouse). Kerala’s TFR is actually below the
replacement level which means that the population is going to decline in the
future. Many others states like Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal Karnataka and
Maharashtra have fairly low TFRs.
4. But there are some states, notably Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar
Pradesh which still have very high TFRs of 4 or more. These few states already
accounted for almost 45% of the total population as of 2001, and they will also
account for about half (50%) of the additions to the Indian population up to the
year 2026. Uttar Pradesh alone is expected to account for a little less than one
quarter (22%) of this increase.

CAUSES OF HIGH BIRTH RATE

1. Customs of Early Marriage : The high birth rate in our country is due to several
factors. One of the factors is the customs of early marriage in our country,
particularly in rural areas. It has been observed that persons who are married at
an early age have more children. Laws have been made from time to time to stop
the practice of child marriage. According to the latest law, it is illegal for a girl to
 marry before she attains the age of 18 years and for a boy to marry before he
attains the age of 21 year.
2. Illiteracy and Poverty : Illiteracy in our country is another factor for the high birth
rate. In this context, education of women is very important It has been found that
the families of illiterate women have more children. Poverty is also an important
factor. For the poor people more children mean additional hands to earn. In the
poor families the child starts earning at an early age. Therefore, the poor people
tend to have more children to increase their income. But in reality having more
children does not help. The poor people are often unable to feed and educate
their children. These children remain illiterates and unskilled labour throughout
their life.
3. Preference for Male Child : In our country, there is a preference for the male
child This kind of wrong attitude is found not only in the illiterate families but also
among the literates. In many families, the desire for a male child results in having
more children.

The unmanageable growth in population creates many problems. The country cannot
provide notorious food to its people. There is a shortage of space and housing.
Unemployment grows and the standard of living decline. Therefore urgent measures are
needed to tackle the problems of population growth.

The problem is more acute in the rural areas where the majority of our people
live. These people have to be made aware of the problem of population growth. They
have to be told that it is now possible to plan the size of the family. People have to
realize that it is our own decision which makes our family small or big. It is in our own
individual interest as well as in the interest of the country that we should have a small
family.

Age structure of the Indian Population

The age structure of the population refers to the proportion of persons in different age
groups relative to the total population. The age structure changes in response to
changes in levels of development and the average life expectancy.

1. Initially, poor medical facilities, prevalence of disease and other factors make for
a relatively short life span. Moreover, high infant and maternal mortality rates
also have an impact on the age structure. With development, quality of life
improves and with it the life expectancy also improves. This changes the age
structure. Relatively smaller proportions of the population are found in the
younger age groups and larger proportions in the older age groups. This is also
referred to as the ageing of the population.
2. The dependency ratio is a measure comparing the portion of a population which
is composed of dependents (i.e.,elderly people who are too old to work, and
children who are too young to work) with the portion that is in the working age
group, generally defined as 15 to 64 years.
 3. A rising dependency ratio is a cause for worry in countries that are facing an
ageing population since it becomes difficult for a relatively smaller proportion of
working-age people to carry the burden of providing for a relatively larger
proportion of dependents.
4. On the other hand, a falling dependency ratio can be a source of economic
growth and prosperity due to the larger proportion of workers relative to the
non-workers. This is sometimes referred to as the ‘demographic dividend’, or
benefit flowing from the changing age structure. However, this benefit is
temporary because the larger pool of working age people will eventually turn into
non-working old people.

India has a very young population, that is, the majority of Indians tend to be young, and
the average age is also less than that for most other countries.

1. The share of the under 15 age group in the total population has come down from
its highest level of 42% in 1971to 35% in 2001.
2. The share of the 15-60 age group has increased slightly from 53% to 59%, while
the share of the 60+ age group is very small but it has begun to increase (form 5%
to 7%) over the same period.
3. But the age composition of the Indian population is expected to change
significantly in the next two decades. Most of this change will be at the two ends
of the age spectrum-as 0-14 age group will reduce its share by about 11% (from
34% in 2001 to 23% in 2026) while the 60 plus age group will increase its share by
about 5% (from 7% in 2001to about 12% in 2026).

As with fertility rates, there are wide regional variations in the age structure as well.

1. While a state like Kerala is beginning to acquire an age structures like that of the
developed countries.
2. Uttar Pradesh presents a very different picture with high proportions in the
younger age groups and relatively low proportions among the aged
3. India as a whole is somewhere in the middle, because it includes states like Uttar
Pradesh as well as states that are more like Kerala.

The bias towards younger age groups in the age structure is believed to be an
advantage for India. Like the East Asian economies in the past decades and like Ireland
today, India is supposed to be benefiting from a ‘demographic dividend’. This divided
arises from the fact that the current generation of working-age people is a relatively
large one and it has only a relatively small preceding generation of old people to
support But there is nothing automatic about this advantage-it needs to be consciously
exploited through appropriate policies.

Does the changing age structure offer a ‘demographic dividend’ for India?

1. The demographic advantage or ‘dividend’ to be derived from the age structure of

the population is due to the fact that India is one of the youngest countries in the
 world. A third of India’s population was below 15 years of age in 2000. In 2020,
the average Indian will be only 29 years old, compared with an average age of 37
in China and the Untied States, 45 in Western Europe and 48 in Japan. This
implies a large and growing labour force, which can deliver unexpected benefits
in terms of growth and prosperity.
2. The ‘demographic dividend’ results from an increase in the proportion of workers
relative to non workers in the population. In terms of age, the working population
is roughly that between 15 and 64 years of age. This working age group must
support itself as well as those outside this age group (i.e., children and elderly
people) who are unable to work and are therefore dependents. Changes in the
age structure due to the demographic transition lowers the ‘dependency ratio’, or
the ratio of non-working age to working-age population, thus creating the
potential for generation growth.
3. But this potential can be converted into actual growth only if the rise in the
working age group is accompanied by increasing levels of education and
employment If the new entrants to the labour force are not educated then their
productivity remains low. If they remain unemployed then they are unable to
earn at all and become dependents rather than earners. Thus, changing age
structure by itself cannot guarantee any benefits unless it is properly utilized
through planned development The real problem is in defining the dependency
ratio of non-workers to workers. The difference between the two is determined
by the extent of unemployment and underemployment, which keep a part of the
labour force out of productive work. This difference explains why some countries
are able to exploit the demographic advantage while others are not.
4. India is indeed facing a window of opportunity created by the demographic
dividend. The effect of demographic trends on the dependency ratio defined in
terms of age groups is quite visible. The total dependency ratio fell from 79 in
1970 to 64 in 2005. But the process is likely to extend well into this century with
the age-based dependency ratio projected to fall to 48 in 2025 because of
continued fall in the proportion of children and then rise to 50 by 2050 because of
an increase in the proportion of the aged.
5. The problem, however, is employment Data from the National Sample Survey
studies of 1999-2000 and from the 2001 Census of India reveal a sharp fall in the
rate of employment generation creation of new jobs across both rural and urban
areas. This is true for the young as well. The rate of growth of employment in
the15- 30 age groups, which stood at around 2.4 per cent a year between 1987
and 1994 of both rural and urban men, fell to 0.7 for rural men and 0.3 per cent
for urban men during 1994 to 2004. This suggests that the advantage offered by a
young labour force is not being exploited.
6. Strategies exist to exploit the demographic window of opportunity that India has
today. But India’s recent experience suggests that market forces by themselves
do not ensure that such strategies would be implemented Unless a way forward is
found we may miss out on the potential benefits that the country’s changing age
structure temporarily offers.
MIGRATION
The vast majority of the population of India has always lived in the rural areas, and that
continues to be true.The 2001 Census found that 72% of our population still lives in
villages, while 28% is living in cities and towns.However the urban population has been
increasing its share steadily, from about 11% at the beginning of the twenty-first
century, an increase of about two-and-half times.

1. It is not a question of numbers alone; processes of modern development ensure

that the economic and social significance of the agrarian – rural way of life
declines relative to the significance of the industrial-urban way of life. This has
been broadly true all over the world and it is true in India as well.
2. Agriculture used to be by far the largest contributor to the country’s total
economic production, but today it only contributes about one-fourth of the
gross domestic product. While the majorities of our people live in the rural
areas and make their living out of agriculture, the relative economic value of
what they produce has fallen drastically. Moreover, more and more people who
live in villages may no longer work in agriculture or even in the village. Rural
people are increasingly migrating to cities.
3. Mass media and communication channels are now bringing images of urban
lifestyles and patterns of consumptions into the rural areas. Consequently,
urban norms and standards are becoming well known even in the remote
villages, creating new desires and aspirations for consumptions. Mass transit
and mass communication are bridging the gap between the rural and urban
areas. Migration is no more a taboo now.

Considered from an urban point of view, the rapid growth in migration shows that the
town or city has
been acting as a magnet for the rural population. Those who cannot find work (or
sufficient work) in the rural areas go to the city in search of work.

1. This flow of rural-to-urban migration has also been accelerated by the continuous
decline of common property resources (Village commerce) like ponds, forests and
grazing lands.
2. These common resources enabled poor people to survive in the villages although
they owned little or no land Now, these resources have been turned into private
property, or they are exhausted. (Ponds may run dry or no longer provide enough
fish; forests may have been cut down and have vanished…).
3. If people no longer have access to these resources, but on the other hand have to
buy many things in the market that they used to get free (like fuel fodder or
supplementary food items), then their hardship increases. This hardship is
worsened by the fact that opportunities for earning cash income are limited in
the villages.
4. Sometimes the city may also be preferred for social reasons specially the relative
anonymity it offers. The fact that urban life involves interaction with strangers
can be an advantage for different reasons. For the socially oppressed groups like
 the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, this may offer some partial
protection from the daily humiliation they may suffer in the village where
everyone knows their caste identity:
5. The anonymity of the city also allows the poorer sections of the socially
dominant rural groups to engage in low status work that they would not be able
to do in the village. All these reasons make the city an attractive destination for
the villagers. The swelling cities bear testimony to this flow of population. This is
evident from the rapid rate of urbanization in the post-independence period.

While urbanization has been occurring at a rapid pace, it is the biggest cities- the
metropolises that have been growing the fastest These metros attract migrants from
the rural areas as well as from small towns. There are now 5,161 towns and cities in
India, where 286 million people live. What is striking, however, is that more than two
– thirds of the urban population lives in 27 big cities with million- plus populations.
Clearly the larger cities in India are growing at such a rapid rate that the urban
infrastructure can hardly keep pace. With the mass media’s primary focus on these
cities, the public face of India is becoming more and more urban rather than rural Yet
in terms of the political power dynamics in the country, the rural areas remain a
decisive force.

Population Policy and Family Planning

‘Population Policy’ in its narrower sense, according to the UNEP is “an effort to affect
the size structure and distribution or characteristics of population”. In its broader
range, it includes “efforts to regulate
economic and social conditions which are likely to have demographic consequences”.

Population Policy Aims at :

1. Decreasing birth rate,

2. Limiting the number of children in family or two
3. Decreasing mortality,
4. Creating awareness among the masses regarding the consequences of galloping
population,
5. Procuring necessary contraceptives.
6. Enacting laws like legalizing abortion, and
7. Giving incentives as well as disincentives.
8. Checking concentration of people in congested areas,Providing necessary public
services for effective settlement in new areas, and
9. Relocation of offices to less populated areas.

Since India’s population policy needs to aim at ‘enhancing the quality of

life’, and ‘increasing individual happiness’, it has to act as a means to attaining a
broader objective of achieving individual fulfillment and social progress. Initially, the
policy was adhoc in nature, flexible, and based on a trial and error approach. Gradually,
it was replaced by more scientific planning.

1. The sub-committee on population appointed in 1940 under the chairmanship of

Radha Kamal Mukherjee by the National Planning Committee (appointed by
Indian National Congress in 1938) laid emphasis on self-control, spreading
knowledge of cheap and safe methods of birth- control and establishing birth
control clinics. It also recommended raising the marriage age, discouragement
of polygamy, and a eugenic programme of sterilizing persons suffering from
transmissible diseases.
2. The Bhore Committee of 1943 appointed by the government criticized self-
control approach and advocated ‘deliberate limitation of families’.

After independence, a Population Policy Committee was created in 1952 and a Family
Planning Research and Programmes Committee in 1953. A Central Family Planning
Board was created in 1956 which emphasized sterilization. During the 1960s, a more
vigorous family planning programme was advocated for stabilizing the growth of
population over a reasonable period While earlier, it was assumed by the government
that the family planning programme had created enough motivation among the
people and the government was only to provide facilities for contraception, it was
later realized that people needed motivation and masses had to be educated.

In April 1976, the Minister of Health and Family Planning, Karan Singh, presented
before the Parliament the National Population Policy :

1. Raising the statutory age of marriage,

2. Introducing fiscal incentives to states which perform well in the field of family
planning,
3. Paying special attention to improving female literacy,
4. Public education through all available media (radio, television, press, films),
5. Introducing direct monetary incentives for adoption of vasectomy and tubectomy
operations, and a new thrust towards research in reproductive health.

It was planned at a time when the Emergency was in operation.There were so many
excesses in the sterilization campaign under the leadership of Sanjay Gandhi, that it
came to be regarded with hostility by people. The programme was so overzealously
implemented in some of the North Indian states that during the election in 1977 after
the Emergency, these excesses became an important election issue and the Congress
lost the elections at the Centre. When in 1980, Indira Gandhi returned to power, she
became extremely cautious and unenthusiastic about reviving her commitment to the
family planning programme. Since then the policy of almost all governments in the
states and at the centre has been so lopsided that the growth rate of population which
was expected to have fallen below the 2 per cent mark, is till around 2.35 per cent.
Population Policy 2000 : National Socio-Demographic Goals for 2010

1. Address the unmet needs for basic reproductive and child health services,
supplies and infrastructure.
2. Make school education up to age 14 free and compulsory, and reduce dropouts at
primary and secondary school levels to below 20 per cent for both boys and girls.
3. Reduce infant mortality rate to below 30 per 1000 live births. Reduce maternal
mortality ratio to below 100 per 100,000 live births.
4. Achieve universal immunization of children against all vaccine preventable
diseases.
5. Promote delayed marriage of girls, not earlier than age 18 and preferably after 20
years of age.
6. Achieve 80 per cent institutional deliveries and 100 per cent deliveries by trained
persons.
7. Achieve universal access information/counseling, and services for fertility
regulation and contraception with a wide basket of choices.
8. Achieve 100 per cent registration of births, deaths, marriage and pregnancy.
9. Contain the spread of Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), and
promote greater integration between the management of Reproductive Tract
Infections (RTI) and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) and the National Aids
Control Organization.
10.Prevent and control communicable diseases.
11.Integrate Indian System of Medicine (ISM) in the provision of reproductive and
child health services, and in reaching out to households.
12.Promote vigorously the small family norm to achieve replacement levels of TFR.
13.Bring about convergence in implementation of related social sector programmes
so that family welfare becomes a people centered programme. But National
Population Policy-2000 has been criticized on many counts.Some major concerns
regarding NPP-2000 are:
14.NPP-2000 provides cash-based incentives for small family norm. Some scholars
are concerned that this does not help as monetary incentives do not change
habits and behaviours based on social norms. That children are gifts of God and
one should never stop children from coming to this world is widespread social
value in our society. Monetary incentives can not change this basic social value,
alternative strategies need to be devised There is need for social transformation,
and no innovative strategy on line with this thought has been included in NPP-
2000.
15.Highlighting the bottom up approach to implementing small family norm NPP-
2000 has emphasized on role of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). However, it is
not mentioned what their role is going to be. Similarly, Population Research
Institutes have not been given any clear responsibilities.
16.NPP-2000 unequivocally rejects all forms of coercion. Yet, many state
governments have announced population policies that violate this commitment
of NPP. Coercion is used by states in the form of disincentives. For example,
Rajasthan and Maharashtra make adherence to two child norm, a service
 condition for state government employment Many states provide funds for rural
development schemes subject to adherence of population largest by panchayats.
17.Disincentives imposed by state governments are often anti-poor and anti-women.
The poor (tribals, dalits etc.) have more fertility rate than the rich.

FAMILY PLANNING
India was the first country to evolve a government-backed family planning
programme in the 1950s when the rest of the world was not aware of the
problem. But; India is still trailing behind in population control. During the Emergency
regime the political leaders; the government officials and policemen shouted
themselves hoarse advocating sterilization. They devised ambitious programmes and
carried them out against popular wishes; and even used such harsh and coercive
methods of sterilization that today one is reluctant to talk of family planning. The
concerned officials in family welfare/ planning departments have been scared away
from it. The experts have jettisoned hopes of reaching targets. In fact, for all practical
purposes, the country is without an effective programme or an effective target. Political
parties studiously skirt the subject, and election campaigns are conducted without a
word about it. What was once a highly dramatic political issue has suddenly become
taboo.

1977 onward , ‘family planning’ was rechristened ‘family welfare’, and tasks beyond
its competence embracing all aspects of family welfare, including improvement of
women’s educational level. Government of India also adopted the UNEP guideline of
delaying the first child and spacing the subsequent births.

The methods in family planning :

Sterilization, loop, pill withdrawal rhythm etc. The condom and the pill seem most
popular among the high socio-economic groups; so are withdrawal method and the
condom among the middle socio-economic groups and sterilization is preferred by
people belonging to the low social strata.Operations for family planning are not very
popular among the socially well-placed, as this group is exposed to other methods of
birth control A good number of women use more than one method depending on
circumstances, availability and mood of the moment.

Measures Adopted :

1. Officially mobilized in 1951, about 150 family planning clinics were

established Since then, a network of Community Health Centres, Primary Health
Centres, and Sub Centres have been created for implementing family planning
programme.A large number of centres and sub-centres are created in rural areas
in each Five Year Plan.
2. Of the various methods of family planning, the government till recently
depended more on the ‘camp approach’ which relied implicitly on the district
authorities applying pressure on their officials to intensify the sterilization
 campaign. The government set targets for different states and district and
adopted persuasive, monetary, as well as coercive measures to achieve
targets.The highest rate of target achievement (200%) was in 1776-77.
3. The Primary Health Centres in villages, engaged in family planning programmes,
perform two specific functions: providing services to people and disseminating
information about these services in an effective manner in order to motivate
people to accept family planning. Nearly half a million medical and para-medical
persons are engaged in the programme, besides half a million part-time village
health guides.

What We Achieved :

1. Since 1968-69 the decline in the birth rate became noticeable. The birth rate
which stood at 41.7 per thousand in 1961came down to 28.7 in 1994 and 25.2 in
1995. Between 1956 and 1996, about 13 crores births-equal to the current
population of Japan-were averted (The Hindustan Times, February).
2. The achievement of the targets has not been disastrous in all fields though the
number of sterilization has fallen, According to the National Health and Family
Welfare, only 6 per cent of Indian women between the ages of 13 and 49 years
use any modern contraceptive. Yet another report says that half of the couples
do not practice family planning though over 90 per cent are aware of it(The
Hindustan times).
3. Such Comp approach has its own disadvantages.Recently in Bilaspur district of
Chhattisgarh, there was such mass sterilization (tube tony) camp. Which led to
death of 19 women. The doctor alleged in this case performed surgery of 83
woman in just 5 hours, i.e.A surgery per 4 minutes Also such sterilization camp is
biased against women as tube tony is preferred or forced on women instead of
vasectomy of male.
4. The use of condom in India is as insignificant as a more six per couple per year.
The data dished out by the survey about sterilization rate (30%) – the mainstay of
the sterilizations are undertaken only after having had three or more children.
The total fertility even begun in India (Sahay, 1997).
5. Today, the effort has altogether slackened to the extent that Ashish Bose, a noted
demographer of our country, in his talk on Indian Population said that “family
planning programme has completely failed in the country and entirely a new
approach is needed for its success”.
6. The progress in containing population growth has been extremely slow as is
evident when we compare it with China which has avoided the birth of 200
million children since 1970 through a vigorous family planning programme and
brought the fertility rate down to 2.5 from 5.82 among eligible mothers (the
Hindustan Times,). China adopted the norm of one child per couple in the urban
centres and a ceiling of two children per couple in the rural areas, with several
incentives for the planned child as also the parents. Those who violated these
norms were penalized The planned child was given special allowances till the age
of 14 for education and upbringing; and the couple was provided with land for
 building house or for farm machinery. A major component of the programme in
China is encouraging late marriage and late child birth.

Attitude Towards Family Planning

The idea of family planning has been successfully brought to the notice of an average
Indian woman. The attitude of a woman towards family planning is influenced by her
education, age, income background, husband’s occupation, and her (working) status
among other factor. In terms of age, it has been found that the percentage of women
approving family planning decreases as the age group increases. But the acceptance is
about two-third even among the older age groups. This clearly shows that the great
majority of Indian women approve of family planning, irrespective of age.

1. Kothari and Gulati conducted a survey in Rajasthan. It was found that out of
total persons studied, 88.1 per cent were in favour of family planning and 11.9
per cent were against it. Kothari also noted that according to the findings of the
National Family Welfare Survey, conducted in Rajasthan in 1993, of the women
married in the 13-49 years age group, 90 per cent knew some method of family
planning, and 76.2 per cent were aware of some sources of getting the required
contraceptives, though only 31.8 per cent were actually using the contraceptives.
2. Rao and Inbaraj conducted a survey on attitude towards family planning in
Vellore city of Tamil Nadu and its surrounding villages. In all, 2,426 persons were
interviewed with the intention of finding out whether they considered it within
the power of the couple to control the number of children. Around 37 per cent
replied in the affirmative and 41 per cent replied in the negative (The Journal of
Family Welfare). When they were asked whether they themselves were in favour
of family planning, 64.6 per cent said ‘Yes’ and 25.4 per cent said ‘No’. The
reasons given for hostility to family planning measures were: it was harmful to
women, it went against God’s will, and it constituted unnatural behaviour.
However, since seven out of every ten persons were in favour of family planning,
it points to the fact that people today have ceased to be very traditional in their
beliefs and values.
3. A study made by the National Institute of Community Development covering 365
villages in 16 states and 43 districts and 7,224 respondents also revealed that 51.6
per cent were in favour of family planning and 23.7 percent were against it
4. Since illiteracy is found more among the poorer section of our society, it is seen
that women with low education in the lower strata are more reluctant to accept
family planning methods. Their contention is that since they have no money to
fall back upon, their only hope of survival is their children’s income. An average
poor Indian couple is not satisfied with fewer than two or three children. Time
and again studies in various parts of the country have revealed this fact About a
decade ago, a large scale survey covering some 32,000 respondents sponsored by
the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare came to the conclusion that most
couples wanted not only three or more children but they also wanted that two of
them should be sons (The Hindustan Times).
 5. A survey was conducted in 1991on ‘Socialization of Indian Youth About
Population by the Family Planning Foundation, Delhi in collaboration with
Operation Research Group, Delhi.This survey studies the attitudes of 17,185 male
and female children selected from 251schools from urban and rural areas of 22
districts of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi. A large number of the
respondents were in favour of two-child family. While about 90 per cent subjects
preferred one son and one daughter, 73 per cent were not keen about giving
undue importance to the sex of the children. A majority of the respondents did
not consider the age of marriage of both boys and girls below 22 years as the
correct marriage age. A good number of them had slight knowledge of
contraceptives but they were not very well informed about the subject. A large
number has acquired this knowledge from watching the TV (The Hindustan
Times).
6. A survey was conducted by Population Research Centre of Udaipur University in
Rajsthan in 1992 in which 5,211women (1,019 from urban areas and 4,192 fro
rural areas) from 27 districts in 13-49 years age group were interviewed The
survey revealed that among the currently married women (i.e.5058), 99 per cent
in urban areas and 84 percent in rural areas had knowledge of at least one
modem method of family planning.ie.,sterilization, condom, pill and injection) as
different from the traditional method of periodic abstinence, withdrawal etc. As
regards their husbands, amongst 2,433 rural husbands, 57.1% approve family
planning, 16.8 per cent disapproved it, and 26.1 per cent were unsure. Amongst
urban husbands, 74.9 per cent approved it, 9.4 per cent disapproved it, and 15.7
per cent were unsure.

Reality Check of Family Planning

1. Family planning in India has come to a standstill In fact, the programme is moving
backward as today we are producing 52 children every minute in comparison to
21 children per minute in 1971 and eight children per minute in 1941. This
stagnation is bound to wipe out all the effort that has been made since 1952.
2. While it is true that the couple protection percentage has gone up steadily from
10.4 in 1971 to 43.96 in 1995, it should be asked : who are these couples who are
supposed to have obtained protection? It is none other than those who have had
three or more children and who have already done their part of the damage to
the two children family norm.
3. The propaganda for two child and no child after 35 year of age should be linked
with improving the standard of living, provision of better education, and health
guarantee of (two) children and improved services for the health of
women/mother.This will put the couples in a frame of mind where they would
themselves be anxious to work for this objective. Money incentives cannot be a
motivating factor. The money may be incentive for the campaigner to motivate
the couple but not for the person undergoing sterilization.
4. Some scholars present optimistic blueprints for checking population explosion in
the coming years. One point usually made is that our country has many untapped
 resources which, if properly developed will sustain even three times the present
population.The second point urged is that industrial growth, economic
development and increase in exports will take care of poverty, unemployment
and the increasing population.
5. Both these views are rather naive and unsound What is useful and important for
any country is the goods and services actually available and not likely to be
available to meet the needs of the population. With the present political situation
in the country both at the centre and in the states, with the political parties laying
focus on achieving and retaining power rather than on ‘community development’
and with increasing casteism, parochialism, regionalism, and linguism, how can
we expect our power elite to take interest in development and modernization
and/ or tapping the untapped resources.

Emerging Issues: Ageing, Sex Ratios, Child and Infant Mortality, Reproductive Health
AGEING :
Thanks to development in medical science for the decline in the death rate in India and
cure easily available for most of the ailments which has increased human long activity.
The number of aged persons in India is increasing. Because of the disintegration of joint-
family system and change in the life style of the youth under the influence of
modernization and urbanization aged persons are facing many problems. Here, we will
consider the nature of problems faced by this section of population in relation to his
relations with younger members of the family.

The word ‘Ageing’ has been defined variedly by researchers in different context. Aging
in the broadest sense, “as those changes occurring in an individual as a result of the
passage of time”. Ageing is a part of living. It begins with conception and terminates
with death. Ageing may best be defined as the survival of a growing number of people
who have completed the traditional adult roles of making a living and childrearing.

Problems of Aged in India

1. Population ageing is a global issue, which has been recognized to have

implications on the health care and social welfare systems. The process whereby
the proportion of children in the population decreases and those of old persons
increases is known as the “ageing of population”.
2. The global population of elderly has constantly been increasing during the second
half of the last century. This has been possible due to easy availability of life
saving drugs, control of famines, and various communicable diseases, better
awareness and supply of nutrition and health facilities and comparatively better
overall standard of living.
3. These achievements have resulted in drastic reduction in mortality rates and
substantial increase in the life expectancy at birth and the overall span of
people.This phenomenon has been experienced by developed countries in the
mid of 20th century. During the last thirty years, this has been emerging as a
significant problem in developing countries also.
 4. The number of people 60 years and over in the globe is 673 million in 2005 and is
expected to increase to 2 billion by 2050, almost a triple increase and the first
quarter of 21st century is going to be called as ‘The age of ageing’. More
developed regions have almost one-fifth of their population over 60 years but 8
per cent in the less developed regions.And the share of older persons living in
these countries is expected to rise from 64 per cent to nearly 80 per cent in 2050.
5. India, like many other developing countries in the world, is presently witnessing
rapid ageing of its population. According to Work!Population Prospects, UN
Revision, 2006, the population of aged in India is currently the second largest in
the world.Even though the proportion of India’s elderly is small compared with
that of developed countries, the absolute number of elderly population is on the
high.
6. There has been tremendous increase in the number of elderly population since
independence in India from 20.19 million in 1951 (5.5 per cent of total
population) to 43.17 million in 1981 and 55 million in 1991. According to 2001
census around 77 million population is above 60 years which constitutes 7.5 per
cent of the total population of the country.
7. This number is expected to increase to 177.4 million in 2025. (The growth rate of
the population (1991-2001) of elderly has been higher (2.89) than overall growth
rate (2.02) of the total population. According to World Population Data Sheet-
2002, 4 per cent of the Indian population are in the age group of 65+ which
accounts for 41.9 million.This phenomenon of growing population of senior
citizens has been the result of recent successes in the achievement of better
health standards and a longer span of life for our citizens. Due to this dependency
ratio for the old had risen from 10.5 per cent in 1961to 11.8 per cent in 1991; it is
projected to be 16.1per cent by 2021.

Defining the Concept

Ageing is a continuous, irreversible, universal process, which starts from conception till
the death of an individual However, the age at which one’s productive contribution
declines and one tends to be economically dependent can probably be treated as the
onset of the aged stage of life. Old age is the last phase of human life cycle, which is
again universally true. The use of the words ‘elderly’, ‘older persons’, and ‘senior
citizens’, in both popular and scholarly work gives the impression that they are a
homogenous group, but in fact there is considerable variation between and among
various categories of older people and also between societies. As such it is difficult to
provide a clear definition. Different writers have viewed ageing in different contexts as
the outcome of biological demographic, sociological psychological or other processes.

The WHO defines those aged 60 -74 years as elderly. In 1980 the UN recommended 60
years as the age of transition for the elderly segment of the population, and has been
categorized as follows:

1. Young Old- between the ages of 60-75 years.

2. Old-Old- between the ages of 75-85 years.
 3. Very Old- 85 years and above

World Population Data Sheet- 2002 considers aged population as population in the age
group of 65+ as old In the Indian context, the age of 60 years has been adopted by the
census of India for the purpose of classifying a person as old which coincides with the
age of retirement in government sector. The terms Young-Old for 60 to 69, Old-Old for
70 to 79 and Oldest Ok!for 80 to 89 have been used.

Changing Social Structure and Institutions

1. Indian society is undergoing rapid transformation under the impact of

industrialization, urbanization, technical and technological change, education and
globalization. Consequently, the traditional values and institutions are in the
process of erosion and adaptation, resulting in the weakening of
intergenerational ties that were the hallmark of the traditional family.
2. Industrialization has replaced the simple family production units by the mass
production and the factory. Economic transactions are now between individuals.
Individual jobs and earnings give rise to income differentials within the family.
Push factors such as population pressure and pull factors such as wider economic
opportunities and modern communication cause young people to migrate
especially from rural to urban areas.
3. With the rapidly increasing number of aged, compounded by disintegration of
joint families and ever increasing influence of modernization and new life styles,
the care of elderly has emerged as an important issue in India.
4. Providing care for the aged has never been a problem in India where a value
based joint family system was dominant. However, with a growing trend towards
nuclear family set-up, and increasing education, urbanization and
industrialization, the vulnerability of elderly is rapidly increasing.The coping
capacities of the younger and elder family members are now being challenged
under various circumstances resulting in neglect and abuse of elderly in many
ways, both within the family and outside.
5. Sociologically, ageing marks a form of transition from one set of social roles to
another, and such roles are difficult. Among all role transformation in the course
of ageing, the shift into the new role of the ‘old’ is one of the most complex and
complicated In an agriculture based traditional society, where children followed
their parent’s occupation, it was natural that the expertise and knowledge of each
generation were passed on to the next, thus affording older persons a useful role
in society.
6. However, this is no longer true in modern society, in which improved education,
rapid technical change and new forms of organization have often rendered
obsolete the knowledge, experience and wisdom of older persons. Once they
retire, elderly people find that their children are not seeking advice from them
anymore, and society has not much use for them.
7. This realization often results in feeling of loss of status, worthlessness and
loneliness. The growth of nuclear families has also meant a need for changes in
role relations. Neither having authority in the family, nor being needed, they feel
 frustrated and depressed If the older person is economically dependent on the
children, the problem is likely to become even worse.
8. Nuclear households, characterized by individuality, independence, and desire for
privacy are gradually replacing the joint family, which emphasizes the family as a
unit and demands deference to age and authority. Children who migrate often
find it difficult to cope with city life and elect to leave their old parents in the
village, causing problems of loneliness and lack of care givers for old parents.
Parents in this circumstance cannot always count on financial support from their
children and may have to take care of themselves. They continue to work,
although at a reduced pace.
9. Another development impacting negatively on the status of older people is the
increasing occurrence of dual career families. Female participation in economic
activity either as workers or as entrepreneurs has increased considerably in the
recent past in the urban informal sector, and the middle class formal sector, as
well as in the rural areas.
10.In the rural informal sectors, increased expenditure on education, health and
better food require high incomes. This development has implications for elderly
care. On the one hand, working couples find the presence of old parents
emotionally bonding and of great help in the caring for their own children. On the
other hand high costs of housing and health care are making it harder for children
to have parents live with them. This is true both in rural and urban areas.
11.Hence the changing factors in the family in its structure and function are
undermining the capacity of the family to provide support to elderly and the
weakening of the traditional norms underlying such support’, leading to neglect
and abuse of older people in family.

Disabilities in old age :

The disabilities that a person experiences in the course of ageing are multiple in nature.
For some, ageing enhances status and enriches life satisfaction, but for many others, it
may be difficult and problematic. On one hand getting old provides opportunity to relax,
enjoy and do things they always wanted to do, but never had the time for when they
were young. On the other hand old age also implies increasing physical mental and
psychological disabilities. Such disabilities are the result of many factors. With the
increasing age and decreasing health, the older person begins to depend unknowingly
physically and psychologically on either the kinship group or the existing social support
network.

Economic Problems :
Economic factors definitely play a major role in generating care for elderly people. The
economic status, of the family, as well as that of the care-receiver, the functional ability
status of the care receiver and care giver is an additional factor that appears to
contribute to the burden. Economic dependence is one of the major factors that very
often affects the well being of older persons. Economic dependence is manifested in
two ways. First, the status of economic dependence may be caused by retirement for a
person employed in the formal sector. Secondly, for a person in the rural or urban
informal sectors, it may result from their declining ability to work because of decreased
physical and mental abilities. Sometimes older persons are also faced with economic
dependence when management responsibilities for matters relating to finances,
property or business are shifted to children, pushing the older person into a new status
of economic dependence.

Psychological Problems :
The common psychological problems that most of the older persons experienceare :
feeling of powerlessness, feeling of inferiority, depression, uselessness, isolation and
reduced competence. These problems along with social disabilities like widowhood
societal prejudice and segregation aggravate the frustration of elderly people. Studies
report that conditions of poverty, childlessness, disability, in-law conflicts and changing
values were some of the major causes for elder abuse.

Health Problems :

1. Health problems are supposed to be the major concern of a society as older

people are more prone to suffer from ill health than younger age groups. It is
often claimed that ageing is accompanied by multiple illness and physical
ailments. Besides physical illness, the aged are more likely to be victims of poor
mental health, which arises from senility, neurosis and extent of life satisfaction.
2. Thus, health status of aged should occupy a central place in any study of the
elderly population. In most of the primary surveys, the Indian elderly in general
and the rural aged in particular are assumed to have some health problems like
cough, poor eyesight, anemia and dental problems.The proportion of the sick and
bed ridden among the elderly is found to be increasing with advancing age, the
major physical disabilities being blindness and deafness.
3. Besides physical ailments, psychiatric morbidity is also prevalent among large
proportion of elderly. Given the prevalence of ill health and disability among the
elderly, there is also lack of the provision of medical aid, and proper familial care,
in addition, while public health services are insufficient to meet the health needs
of the elderly.
4. Since a large majority of older Indians live in rural areas, discussion of ageing in
India is essentially a discussion of ageing in rural areas.Almost eight out of ten
older people in India live in rural areas. According to 2001 census, 78 per cent of
elderly people in India resided in rural areas. Women comprise a slightly higher
proportion than men, basically due to higher female expectancy at birth.
Pervasive poverty and inequalities of income, coupled with a very inadequate
safety net, has meant that majority of older persons become marginalized or
even destitute. The poor among elderly people have been losing out even as
economic development is taking place in the country as a whole.
5. Ageing is predominantly a women’s problem. Not only do women live longer but
most of them are widows. They face serious discrimination with respect to their
rights and are over burdened with familial responsibilities. This adversely affects
 their health, nutrition and mental well being. Irrespective of economic, marital or
educational status, elderly women face an emotional void in their life. A women
explanation for distress among elderly female is the ’empty nest syndrome’.The
empty nest’ period may indeed bring in depression in the course of their
diminishing role in the family. Extra provisions of care and support are required to
redeem them from their miserable plight.
6. Added to this is the problem of widows in our society today. Approximately 99
per cent of India’s elderly population lives below the poverty line and 50 per cent
of them are widows. They are especially vulnerable to poverty, inadequate care
and neglect in ok!age. The tradition of women marrying men older than them by
several years, the increasing life expectancy of women, social disapproval of
widow remarriage, patrilineal inheritance, and problems of finding employment
all render widows more vulnerable than most other groups in society. Their
situation become worse when they own very little or no assets of their own and
do not have an independent source of income.Single persons, particularly women
are more vulnerable in old age as few people are willing to take care of non-lineal
relatives.

Government’s Role in the Rehabilitation of Aged :

Since independence the Indian government has been committed to supporting the old
people in our society with certain interventionist welfare methods. The year 1999 was
declared by the UN as the International Year of Older Persons followed on 13th Jan
1999, by the Government of India approving the National Policy for Older Persons for
accelerating welfare measures and empowering the elderly in ways beneficial to them.
Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 provides legal
sanctions to the rights of the elderly. In addition constitutional provisions for old age
security, old age pension, establishing ok!age homes, expanding geriatric services,
liberalizing housing policy for elders have also been undertaken.

Social security benefits :

In the context of changing intergenerational relationships, economic dependence on
children is a major factor determining the quality of life of elderly. As such, social
security by the state assumes great importance. Unfortunately, at present, there is very
little in terms of social security from the state in India. Only those who work in the
public sector or for large private companies have benefits such as pensions and
provident funds. However, for the most of the 90 per cent of elderly persons who work
in the informal sector, there are scarcely any benefits. The only available benefits for
the poor are:

 The National Old age Pension of 75 rupees per month, which is universal but
available only to destitute people over the age of 65 years.
 Various state schemes, with benefits ranging between Rs.60 to Rs. 250 per
month, meant generally for people aged 65+ and below the poverty line, and
 Benefits for widows, with benefits below Rs. 150 per month.
With the constantly increasing cost of health care and housing, these benefits fall far
short of supporting even minimal basic needs.The right of parents without any means of
their own to be supported by their children has been recognized by section 125(1) (d) of
the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973, and section 20 (3) of the Hindu Adoption and
Maintenance Act, 1956. More recently, in 1996, the Government of the state of
Himachal Pradesh passed the Parents’ Maintenance Bill requiring children to take care
of parents with no means and to provide assistance to those neglected by their
children.The Governments of Maharashtra, Goa and others are in the process of passing
similar bills.

Government of India has passed the maintenance and welfare of parents and senior
citizens bill 2007 this bill seeks to make it legal obligation for children and heirs to
provide maintenance to senior citizen. It confreres right to senior citizen to apply to a
maintenance tribunal if they are unable to maintain themselves.

Role of Old Age Homes as care givers

1. The concept of the old age home, though not very common in India, is not
unknown. The first old age home was established in Bangalore in 1983 by the
Bangalore Friends-in Need society and was called the ‘(Old Home)’. According to
Help Age India estimates, there are 728 institutions at present, perhaps a majority
of them in urban areas. Kerala has the largest number of old age homes. More
than 60 per cent of the old age homes in India are of the charitable type, meant
for destitute or very poor persons.
2. About 20 per cent of them are of the ‘pay and stay’ type and another 20 per cent
are mixed. About15 per cent of the homes were for women exclusively. In recent
years, there has been rapid increase in the number of old age homes and they are
gradually gaining acceptance, especially by those who see these institutions as a
better alternative than living in a son’s home where you are not wanted.
3. There is a debate going on in India at present among seniors’ organizations, non-
governmental organizations and others about whether this growth should be
allowed supported or curbed There is a strong feeling that proliferation of old-age
homes would make it easier for children to shirk their responsibility for taking
care of their aging parents by placing them in institutions. Increasing
institutionalization of elderly people would lead to erosion of the desirable
traditional family values and may even lead to the breakup of the institution of
family itself.
4. While this is the possibility in view of decline in traditional filial obligations among
children and lack of an adequate social security safety net, there is also need for
various types of institutions to accommodate the increasing number of elderly
parents whose children are unable or unwilling to care for their parents.
5. In spite of the government’s and NGO’s efforts in rehabilitating the aged in India
they are still the most vulnerable group facing multiple problems and hence
require proper care and attention. Ageing is a natural process. ‘Old age is an
incurable disease’. But more recently J.S. Ross commented “You do need old age,
you protect it, you promote it, and you extend it”. A man is as old as he feels and
 woman as old as she looks. Hence there is need for proper care and protection
for the elderly in the changing scenario. Following suggestions may go a long way
in changing the life of elderly in India:
 Efforts should be made to strengthen the family care, because the preferred
source of support for the aged is still the family – informal system where the
notion of care is embedded within a tradition of social obligations that are
understood and reciprocated The reciprocal care and support within multi-
generational families of parents, grandparents and children should be
encouraged Traditional values of filial obligations can also be reinforced in school
curricula and through the media.
 The Institutional care must be able to enhance relationships within families that
incorporate both young and old persons. There is a need for effective legislation
for parents’ right to be cared for by the children.
 The existing health care systems are not sufficient to meet the physical and health
needs of the ageing population such as old age security establishing old age
homes, expanding geriatric services and liberalizing the welfare policy for older
persons. It is necessary to increase public awareness of the need for protection of
this sub group.There is a great need to protect the target group i.e. rural old and
ok!women, and widows.
 There is also need for the elderly to remain active, to know that they still have a
part to play in the family or community to which they belong and can make a
useful co contribution to nation and society as a whole.

There are four types of programmes which are needed in the country for the older
persons :

1. Day-care Centers or Older Persons Club for those who leave their families.
2. Institutions for unattached dependent and friendless persons.
3. Counseling for incurable and chronically ill and
4. Financial assistance to those who can live in their families but do not have
sufficient means to maintain themselves.

United Nations has suggested following principles and recommendations for the aged:

1. National machinery should he established or strengthened to ensure that the

humanitarian needs and development potential of the aged are appropriately
addressed;
2. The expansion of research focusing on the demographic, epidemiological
biological social and economic aspects of ageing, particularly in developing
countries, should be supported
3. The establishment or expansion of community based or institutional care systems
that provide the necessary health and social services for the frail elderly who have
limited or no family support should be encouraged;
4. Organizations and associations of the elderly, which ensure their active
involvement in policy, and programme development, should be encouraged and
promoted Training in Gerontology and Geriatrics should be promoted to ensure
 that policy makers researchers and practitioners have an adequate knowledge of
issue related to ageing.
5. The Ministry of Social Justice and Employment has been implementing has
Central Scheme of assistance for establishing and maintaining the day- care
centers, old age homes, mobile Medicare units as well as for supporting and
strengthening non-institutional services for the aged This revised scheme is called
as ‘An Integrated Programme for older persons’.

SEX RATIO IN INDIA

1. The sex ratio is an important indicator of gender balance in the population.As

mentioned in the section on concepts earlier, historically, the sex ratio has been
slightly in favour of females, that is, the number of females per 1000 males has
generally been somewhat higher than 1000. However, India has had a declining
sex-ratio for more than a century.
2. From 972 females per 1000 males at the turn of the twentieth century, the sex
ratio has declined to 933 at the turn of the twenty-first century. The trends of
the last four decades have been particularly worrying- from 941 in 1961the sex
ratio had fallen to an all time low of 927 in 1991 before posting a modest increase
in 2001.
3. But that has really alarmed demographers, policy makers, social activists and
concerned citizens is the drastic fall in the child sex ratio. Age specific sex ratio
began to be computed in 1961.The sex ratio for the 0-6 years age group (known
as the juvenile or child sex ratio) has generally been substantially higher than the
overall sex ratio for all age groups, but it has been falling very sharply .In fact the
decade 1991-2001 represents an anomaly in that the overall sex ratio has posted
its highest ever increase of 6 points from the all time low of 927 to 933, but the
child sex ratio has dropped from 945 to 927,a plunge of 18 points taking it below
the overall sex ratio for the first time.
4. The state-level child sex ratios offer even greater cause for worry. As many as
six states and union territories have a child sex ratio of under 900 females per
1000 males. Punjab is the worst off with an incredibly low child sex ratio of 793
(the only state below800), followed by Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Gujarat and
Himachal Pradesh. Uttaranchal Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra are all
under 925, while Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Tamil Nadu,
Karnataka and Orissa are above the national average of 927 but below the 950
mark. Even Kerala, the state with the best overall sex ratio does not do too well at
963, while the highest child sex ratio of 986 is found in Sikkim.

Demographers and sociologists have offered several reasons for the decline in the sex
ratio

1. The health factor that affects women differently from men is childbearing. It is
relevant to ask if the fall in the sex ratio may be partly due to the increased risk of
death in child birth that only women face. However, maternal mortality is
supposed to decline with development, as levels of nutrition, general education
 and awareness as well as the availability of medical and communication facilities
improves. Indeed maternal mortality rates have been coming down in India even
though they remain high by international standards. So it is difficult to see how
maternal mortality could have been responsible for the worsening of the sex ratio
over time.
2. Combined with the fact that the decline in the child sex ratios has been much
steeper than the overall figure, social scientists believe that the cause has to be
sought in the differential treatment of girl babies. Several other factors may be
held responsible for the decline in the child sex ratio including.
3. Severe neglect of girl babies in infancy leading to higher death rates,
4. Sex specific abortions that prevent girl babies from being born, and
5. Female infanticide (or the killing of girl babies due to religious or cultural beliefs).

Each of these reasons point to a serious social problem, and there is some evidence
that all of these have been at work in India. Practices of female infanticide have been
known to exist in many regions, while increasing importance is being attached to
modern medical techniques by which the sex of the baby can be determined in the very
early stages of pregnancy. The availability of the sonogram, originally developed to
identify genetic or other disorders in the foetus, may be used to identify selectively
abort female fet uses.

The regional pattern of low child sex ratios seems to support this argument So the
problem of selective abortions is not due to poverty or ignorance or lack of resources
only. For example, if practices like dowry payments is there for marriage of their
daughters, then prosperous parents would be the ones most able to afford this.
However, we find that sex ratios are lowest in the most prosperous regions.

It is also possible (though this issue is still being researched) that as economically
prosperous families decide to have fewer children- often only one or two now-they
may also wish to choose the sex of their child. This becomes possible with the
availability of ultrasound technology, although the government has passed strict laws
banning this practice and imposing heavy fines and imprisonment as punishment Known
as the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act, this
law has been in force since 1996, and has been further strengthened in 2003. However,
in the long run the solution to problems like the bias against girl children depends more
on how social attitudes evolve even though laws and rules can also help.

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
Deaths due to pregnancy and child birth are potential threats to women in the
reproductive age groups.The toll that unsafe motherhood takes on the lives and health
of women, and hence, on their families and communities, becomes really tragic as it is
mostly preventable. Reduction of mortality of women has thus been an area of major
concern and governments across the globe have set time bound targets to achieve it
Maternal death is an important indicator of the reach of effective clinical health services
to the poor, and is in turn act as one of the composite measure to assess the country’s
progress.

Maternal Mortality Ratio

1. The Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) is the number of women who die from any
cause related to or aggravated by pregnancy or its management (excluding
accidental or incidental causes) during pregnancy and childbirth or within 42 days
of termination of pregnancy irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy
per 100,000 live births.
2. The problem in estimating MMR is due to the comparative rarity of the event,
necessitating a large sample size. However, even with this constraint.Sample
Registration System (SRS) data indicates India has recorded a deep decline of
45.6% in MMR from 327 in 1999-2001 to 178 in 2010-12 and a fall of about 30%
happened during 2006 -12. The decline in MMR from 1990 to 2012 is 59%. This
can be attributed to the increase in awareness and the intensive efforts being
taken throughout the country in improving healthcare especially that of
pregnant women and mothers.
3. From an estimated MMR level of 437 per 100,000 live births in 1990, India is
required to reduce the MMR to 109 per 100,000 live births by 2015.At the
historical pace of decrease, India tends to reach MMR of 140 per 100,000 live
births by 2015, falling short by 31points. However, the bright line in the trend is
the sharper decline i.e.16% during 2009-12, 17% during 2006-09 and 16% during
2004-06 compared to 8% decline during 2001- 2003.
4. As per SRS 2010-12, among the major States, Maternal Mortality Ratio is lowest in
Kerala (66) and highest in Assam (328). During 2010-12, the Maternal Mortality
Ratio is higher than the national level estimate in the States of Bihar/ Jharkhand
Madhya Pradesh/ Chattisgarh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh/Uttarakhand and
Assam.
5. The present status of MMR along with the extent of progress achieved in the last
one decade, give a better picture of the performance of the States in reducing
maternal mortality ratio. The States which showed highest points of decline
during 1999-2012 are Uttar Pradesh/ Uttarakhand (declined by 247 points),
Rajasthan (declined by 246 points), Odisha (declined by 189 points),
Bihar/Jharkhand (declined by 181 points), Madhya Pradesh/ Chhattisgarh
(declined by177 points) where as at all India level the decline was 149
points.Thus, most of the States with highest level of MMR in 2010 – 12, have
shown maximum points of decline.
6. It is worrying that more young mothers in the age group 20-29 years die due to
maternal causes and the proportion increased in 2010-12 from that of 2007-09.
The proportion of maternal deaths in the age group 20-29 years stood at 67% in
2010-12, whereas the corresponding figure in 2007 -09 is 63%. Further, the age
group, 20-24 yrs are more susceptible to maternal death as deaths due to
maternity causes are highest in this group. During 2010-12, the maternal deaths
 are highest in the age group 20-24 years (39%) followed by 25-29 years (28%),
whereas the corresponding figures for 2007-09 were 36% and 27% respectively.
7. In addition to Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR), the Maternal Mortality Rate
(MMRate – Number of maternal deaths in a given period per 100000 women of
reproductive age during the same time period) and Adult lifetime risk of maternal
death (The probability that a 15-year-old women will die eventually from a
maternal cause) are important statistical measures of maternal mortality.
8. The maternal mortality rate at all India level has come down from 20.7 in 2004-
05 to 12.4 in 2010-12. All the major States have also shown a decline in MMR
during this period. The MMRate is lowest in Kerala (3.3) and highest in
Uttarpradesh/ Uttarakhand (28.7) in 2010-12.
9. At all India level lifetime risk declined from 0.7% in 2004-06 to 0.4% 2010-12 and
all the major States have shown decline during this period In 2010-12, lifetime risk
was lowest in Kerala 0.1% and highest in Uttar Pradesh/ Uttarakhand (1%).
10.Gaps still persisting in ensuring safe delivery and Proportion of births attended by
skilled health personnel.
11.Safe motherhood depends mainly on delivery by trained / professional
personnel particularly through institutional facilities. Among other things,
ensuring ante-natal care of prospective mothers at health centres and
recommended doses of IFT are important factors that help improve maternal
health and reduce life risk during pregnancy.
12.The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-2005-06) and District Household Survey
(DLHS- 2007-08) revealed the trend in institutional deliveries and safe deliveries
and pointed towards the need for more focused and accelerated initiatives to
improve the situation. The institutional deliveries in India increased from 40.9% in
2002-04(District level Household Survey) to 72.9% in 2009 (Coverage Evaluation
Survey).
13.As per Coverage Evaluation Survey (CES), 2009, delivery attended by skilled
personnel is 76.2% which was 47.6% as per District level Household Survey (DLHS-
2002 -04). With the existing rate of increase in deliveries by skilled personnel, the
likely achievement for 2015 is only to 77.29%, which is far short of the targeted
universal coverage. As per CES 2009, the percentage of deliveries attended by
skilled health personnel ranges from 43.8% (Nagaland) to 100% (Kerala).
14.Going by the historic rate of coverage increase in deliveries assisted by trained/
professional persons, 7 States namely, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Jammu &Kashmir,
Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Sikkim and Tamil Nadu are likely to
reach universal coverage or close to it (achievement of 90%& above) by the year
2015.For the other States, shortfall from universal coverage tends to vary from 11
to 61 percentage points.
15.The maternal health care services for antenatal care includes at least three
antenatal care visits, iron prophylaxis for pregnant and lactating women, at least
one dose of tetanus toxoid vaccine, detection and treatment of anemia in
mothers, and management and referral of high-risk pregnancies and natal care.
Addressing issues related to Reproductive Health
Interventions & Strategies under NRHM :
The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was launched on 12th April 2005
throughout the country with special focus on 18 states, including eight Empowered
Action Group (EAG) States, the North-Eastern States, Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal
Pradesh. The NRHM seeks to provide accessible, affordable and quality health care to
the rural population, especially the vulnerable sections. During the 12th Plan, one of
the goals of NRHM is to reduce MMR to less than 100 per 1,00,000 live births. Under
National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and within its umbrella, the Reproductive and
Child Health Programme. Phase II, the Government of India has taken a number of
steps to accelerate the pace of reduction in maternal mortality. These strategies and
interventions are:

1. Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) :

 Janani SurakshaYojana, a demand promotion scheme for reduction of MMR and
IMR has led to steep increase in Institutional Delivery in government health
facilities. Cash benefits are provided under the scheme to SC/ST /BPL women to
promote institutional delivery.
2. Quality Antenatal, Intranatal and Postnatal care :
 Quality ANC includes minimum of at least 4 ANCs including early registration and
1st ANC in first trimester along with physical and abdominal examination, Hb
estimation and urine investigation, 2 doses of T.T Immunization and consumption
of IFA tablets for 100 days.
 Iron and Folic Acid supplementation to pregnant & lactating women for
prevention and treatment of anaemia.
 Health and nutrition education to promote dietary diversification, inclusion of
iron and folate rich food as well as food items that promote iron absorption.
3. Operationalisation of the health facilities for provision of Basic Emergency
Obstetric Care (BeMOC) and Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric Care (CEmOC)
services :
 Sub-Centres, Primary Health Centres, Community Health Centres and District
Hospitals are being operationalized for providing 24×7 basic and comprehensive
obstetric and newborn care services.
4. Delivery Points :
 Govt of India is facilitating the States in identifying the “delivery points” for
providing comprehensive and quality Reproductive Maternal Newborn and Child
Health (RMNCH) Services at these health facilities which are performing
deliveries/ C- sections above a certain benchmark.
5. Capacity building of health care providers :
 To Operationalise PHCs, CHCs, DH and other health facilities, the health providers
working at these facilities are being trained and oriented for improving their
knowledge and skills in providing quality obstetric care services.
6. Referral Services at both Community and Institutional level :
 Under NRHM, states are provided financial assistance for establishing the
emergency response services and patient transport ambulances. Government of
 India has a thrust on establishing a network of Basic patient care transportation
ambulances with the aim to reach the beneficiaries in rural areas within 30
minutes of the call for quick service delivery.The states have been given flexibility
to use different models of emergency referral transport for establishing the
necessary linkages between home and health facility and between different levels
of health facilities and for drop back home for pregnant women and post
delivered women and sick neonates for whom it is to be provided free of cost.
7. Comprehensive Abortion Care services :
 To reduce maternal mortality and morbidity due to unsafe abortion, consistent
efforts have been made to expand safe abortion services in peripheral health care
facilities in rural areas.These include provision of drugs and equipment for
Manual Vacuum Aspiration (EVA), Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVA), Medical
Methods of Abortion (MMA) at PHCs, CHCs, DHs with focus on the delivery
points, encouraging private and NGO sectors to provide quality MTP services,
certification and regulation of private sector facilities through District Level
Committees (DLCs) within the framework of the MTP Act 1971and development
of appropriate IEC /BCC messages to create awareness in the community on MTP.
8. Services for Reproductive & Tract Infections (RTI /STI) :
 Services for RTI /STI are provided at all health facilities from PHC upwards
including CHCs, other sub district hospitals and district hospitals with a focus on
Delivery Point in convergence with the NACP. These include Syndromic
management of RTIs/STIs, provision of colour coded kits, RPR testing kits and
Whole Blood Finger Prick Testing at the delivery points.
 Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission (PPTCT) Services to enhance coverage
of PPTCT services, HIV screening of all pregnant women is being offered during
routine Ante natal care visits on a voluntary basis. NACO has launched new
Guidelines for PPTCT under the NACP.
9. Outreach activities :
 Village Health and Nutrition Day (VHNDs) at Anganwadi centre at least once every
month and to provide ante natal/ post partum care for pregnant women,
promote institutional delivery, immunization. Family Planning & nutrition are the
part of various services being provided during VHNDs.
10.Engagement of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) to generate demand
and facilitate accessing of health care services by the community.
 The ASHAs have been engaged to perform various key activities e.g. regular visit
to pregnant women, prepare micro-birth plans, counsel for institutional delivery,
escort the pregnant woman to the nearest public health facility at the time of
delivery, facilitate arrangement for referral transport, assist ANM in providing
care to the mother during the postnatal period through home visits and to
facilitate the pregnant women in getting the benefits under the JSY scheme etc.
 Performance Based Incentives: States are incentivizing the ASHA for her key
activities as per GOI & State Guidelines.
New initiatives :

11.Mother Child TrackingSystem (MCTS): Name Based web enabled tracking of

pregnant women and children:
 An online Mother Child Tracking System (MCTS) has been made operational for all
the States and UTs. After entering the data, work plan is being generated for the
ANMs and ASHAs to deliver the health services during any point of time. MCTS
call centre has been setup to call the beneficiaries and validate their data.
12.Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakaram (JSSK)
 Government of India has launched Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakaram (JSSK) on
1st June,2011 The initiative entitles all pregnant women delivering in public
health institutions to absolutely free and no expense delivery, including caesarean
section. The entitlements include free drugs and consumables, free diet up to 3
days during normal delivery and up to 7 days for C section, free diagnostics, and
free blood wherever required This initiative also provides for free transport from
home to institution, between facilities in case of a referral and drop back
home.Similar entitlements have been put in place for all sick newborns accessing
public health institutions for treatment till 30 days after birth. All the States and
UTs have initiated this programme.
13.Maternal Death Review (MDR) :
 Maternal Death Review (MDR) is one of the important interventions under the
RCH Programme to accelerate the pace of decline of MMR in the country.
 The MDR process has been institutionalised across the country to serve as a tool
for improving the quality of obstetric care and reducing maternal mortality and
morbidity. Under the process, reporting and analysis of the maternal deaths
provides an opportunity to identify the delays that contribute to maternal deaths
at various levels and use the information to take corrective actions to overcome
the systemic and programmatic gaps in service provision.
 The MDR Guidelines and monitoring tools have been disseminated to the states
and UTs for guiding states in rolling out and monitoring the MDR Process. All the
States & UTs are currently reporting on the MDR process through monthly
reports to MOHFW. Tamil Nadu and Kerala have well established processes to
conduct MDR for a number of years. Other States like Maharashtra, Odisha,
Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Assam have shown considerable progress in
reporting and analysis of maternal deaths.
14.Maternal and Child Health Wings:
 JSY has led to steep increase in Institutional Delivery in government health
facilities. ASHAs are also generating demand and facilitating access of women and
children to public health institutions. As a result, these hospitals are
overstretched in order to ensure quality of care.

Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana (IGMSY)

1. A Conditional Cash Transfer Schemes for pregnant and lactating women was
introduced in October, 2010 to contribute to better enabling environment by
 providing cash incentives for improved health and nutrition to pregnant and
nursing mothers by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
2. The scheme envisages providing cash to Pregnant & Lactating (P&L) women
during pregnancy and lactation in response to individual fulfilling specific
conditions. It addresses short term income support objectives with long term
objective of behavioural and attitudinal changes.
3. The scheme attempts to partly compensate for wage loss to Pregnant & Lactating
women both prior to and after delivery of child Being implemented on pilot basis
in 53 selected districts using the platform of ICDS, 12.5 lakh P&L women are
expected to be covered every year under IGMSY. The beneficiaries are paid Rs.
4000/- in three instalments per Pregnant and lactating women between the
second trimester and till the child attains the age of 6 months on fulfilling specific
conditions related to maternal and child health. Pregnant women of 19 years of
age and above for first two live births are eligible under the scheme.
4. All Government / Public Sector Undertakings (Central and State) employees are
excluded from the Scheme as they are entitled for paid maternity leave. The
wives of such employees are also excluded from the scheme. The scheme is now
covered under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) programme and under which nine
districts have been included under first phase of the implementation. For phase-
II, which starts from 01/07/2013, seven districts namely Palakad (Kerala), Yanam
(Puducherry), West Delhi (Delhi), Nalgonda (Andhra Pradesh), Hamirpur
(Himachal Pradesh), Lakshadweep (Lakshadweep) &Dhamtari (Chhatisgarh) have
been identified.
5. Under the “The National Food Security Act”, every pregnant women and
lactating mother will become entitled to maternity benefit ofRs. 6000/ -. The
Ministry will have to revise the guideline of the IGMSY to bring it in conformity
with the provisions of the Act. The significant changes will include
universalisation of IGMSY from 53 districts to whole of the country, increasing the
number of beneficiaries manyfold and increase in amount to be transferred per
beneficiary from present Rs. 4000/- to Rs. 6000/- in 53 districts across the country
is being issued.
6. In addition to the above mentioned major initiatives by Central ministries, the
State Governments also implement similar programmes to improve maternal
health, and to reduce maternal mortality. The programmes are to focus on all
concerned fronts including awareness generation, better accessible heath care
facilities, financial benefits etc which in turn ensure safe motherhood.

The available facts pertaining to reproductive health in India point out that:

1. Of the total conceptions that take place annually, about 78 per cent are
unplanned and about 25 per cent are definitely unwanted About 30 million
women in India desire better family planning services since they are not satisfied
with the available facilities/programmes.
2. Out of about 11 million abortions every year, 69 per cent are induced and 31 per
cent are spontaneous.
 3. Over one lakh women die every year during pregnancy and child birth.
4. About three-fourth babies are delivered at home and only one-third deliveries are
assisted by a doctor, nurse or a midwife.
5. One in every13 children dies within the first year of life and one in every nine dies
before reaching the age of five. Infant mortality is as high as 52 per cent in rural
areas.

In recent years government has started many programmes to improve reproductive

health of women. Janani Suraksha Yojana, National Rural Health Mission, ASHA
volunteers etc., are all dedicated to this cause. Reproductive health of the women has
become prime concern of policy makers. High infant mortality rate, maternal mortality
rate are contributed to weak reproductive health.
 Challenges of Social Transformation
Crisis of Development: Displacement, Environmental Problems,
and Sustainability
SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
Neither society nor social problems are static. Social Problems are mainly linked with
Social structure.

1. Ideologies
2. Institutions
3. Interests of Society
4. Values
5. Attitudes
6. Power
7. Authority

The process of Social Transformations brings about change in the above mentioned
different aspect of
social life and side by side generates new social problems.

It is a broad concept used to indicate social dynamics. The ideas, conveying the meaning
of ‘evolution,
‘progress’ and ‘change’ on the one hand and the meaning of ‘development’,
‘modernization’ and ‘revolution’ on the other, are incorporated within the concept of
the process of social transformation. If the process of social transformation is
suppressed it generates new social problems i.e., farmers unrest, Naxalism,
unemployment, youth unrest etc. If the process of transformation taking a natural
course, the society faces the problems of adjustment i.e., generation gap, caste conflict
etc, poverty, inequality, and deprivation, displacement, during the transitional phase of
the decline of the old system and emergence of the new system.

What is Development?
Development is a stage in which with the help of his knowledge and skill man is able to
relieve himself from the natural environment and molds it for his own advantage. It
involves extraction of natural mineral from the land and sea water and controlling the
flow of natural surface water for generation or power and transforming land for the
development of transport facilities and industrial establishment Naturally such
development activities provide economic benefits and it is the only way for the progress
of human civilization.

Main characteristics of development are as follows:

1. Development modifies natural environment for human advantage.

 2. Development is a change on account of best use of technological and economic
capabilities.
3. Development increases physical and economic capability, hence, it can be
measured in terms of its social benefits.
4. Development brings about economic and technological change; therefore, socio-
cultural change is its secondary aspect
5. Development leads human life from simplicity to complexity.
6. Development leads to division of labour and specialization in job.
7. Development provides various options to man to fulfil his needs.
8. Development is an upward trend in the production of various goods and
instrument for our use.
9. Proper planning is essential for proper development
10.Some types of development if not controlled properly such as weaponry may lead
to human devastation.

Development is necessary for the progress but it cannot be done without changing the
land use and erecting some form of new structure and for this the original user of the
land has to be displaced which if not done with the free will and convenience for the
original user, it is bound to create problems to him. Such problems are termed as
development induced displacement problems. In short, this is crisis of development.

Meaning of Displacement :
We find that since early days of human civilization human settlements are along rivers
and have agricultural landmass around their settlements. When government plans some
types of development, such as construction of dam, power generation plant,
construction of road or railway and development of industrial area etc., it acquires land
for the purpose. After paying some compensation asks the original owners of the land
acquired to vacate it If they do not do so willingly they are removed from the acquired
land by force. This process is termed as development induced displacement.

Types of Displacement :
In India, there are four broad categories of displacement :

1. Political causes, including secessionist movements : Since independence, north-

east India has witnessed two major armed conflicts: the Naga movement
primarily led by the National Socialist Council of Nagaland and the Assam
movement led by the All Assam Students Union and now largely taken over by the
extremist United Liberation Front of Assam. The violence and retaliatory
responses from the gov- eminent and other forces opposed to the secessionists
continue to generate a steady flow of displaced people. In Kashmir’s ‘war’
between state forces and militants, the killing of Kashmiri Pandits by
fundamentalist secessionist groups, the widespread anarchy created by political
instability and the continuous violation of fundamental human rights by both the
state and militant groups, have led to large- scale displacement, mainly of
Kashmiri Pandits (estimated at 250,000), to Jammu and cities like Delhi. Despite
 the election and restoration of a popular government in 1996, those displaced
have not been able to return due to the continuing reality of sporadic massacres
in Kashmir. Although conditions are miserable, the displaced find that camps offer
better employment opportunities, education and security.
2. Identity-based autonomy movements, have also led to violence and
displacement : This has happened in Punjab and more recently in the Bodo
Autonomous Council area of western Assam. ‘Cleansing’ of non-Bodo
communities by the Bodos, through plunder, arson, massacre and persecution,
has forced a large number of non-Bodos to flee. They now live in camps.
3. Localized violence : Internal displacement has also arisen from caste disputes (as
in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh), religious fundamentalism (as in urban riots in
Bombay, Coimbatore, Bhagalpur and Aligarh) and aggressive denial of residency
and employment rights to non-indigenous groups by supporters of the ‘son of-the
soil policy’ (as in Meghalaya by the Khasi students and in Arunachal Pradesh
against the Chakmas).
4. Environmental and development- induced displacement : In order to achieve
rapid economic growth, India has invested in industrial projects, dams, roads,
mines, power plants and new cities which have been made possible only through
massive acquisition of land and subsequent dis- placement of people.According to
the figures provided by the Indian Social Institute, the 21.3 million development-
induced IDPs include those displaced by dams (16.4 million), mines (2.55 million),
industrial development (1.25 million) and wild life sanctuaries and national parks
(0.6 million).

Development projects, particularly dams, have always generated serious controversy in

India as they have tended to be a major source of displacement-related conflicts.
Estimates of national resettlement forced by development a project shows that
during1950-90 the number of people affected was18.5 million.According to the Central
Water Commission, over 3,300 dams have been built since independence and
some1,000 more are under construction.Another study of 54 large dams done by the
Indian Institute of Public Administration concluded that the average number of people
displaced by a large dam is 44,182.

Over 21,000 families were uprooted and ousted when the Pong Dam was constructed
nearly 25 years ago and they have still not received the benefit of any proper
rehabilitation measures. The World Bank’s ‘Project Completion Report’ for the
controversial Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada (likely to displace 0.2 million people)
has cast a shadow over the project’s future. India’s unimpressive track record in
operations and maintenance, says the report, is responsible for the uncertainty. India
has borrowed US$151.5 million from the Work!Bank to build the dam. In 1993 the Bank
cancelled plans to lend more due to the Indian government’s failure to meet even such
basic conditions as identification of the displaced and preparation of resettlement plans.

The fact that development projects are usually located in remote villages, hills and
forests means that those displaced tend to be the indigenous people who have been the
traditional agents of conservation. Here displacement has meant a loss of livelihood
habitat and assets, social disruption and disorder and severance from an eco-system
which had sustained them. Most critically, these displacements threaten the poor and
the weak with even greater impoverishment It is only those cases of ‘involuntary
resettlement’ which come to the attention of social and environmental activists, and are
thus highlighted that lead to some measure of state intervention. In most cases total
displacement with loss of home and livelihood has resulted.

Rehabilitation primarily the process of reconstruction of the livelihood of displaced

persons has never been a guiding principle of the 1894 Land Acquisition Act (still in use)
which instead emphasizes cash compensation for loss. The government has taken the
firm stand that rehabilitation would not be a prime consideration when acquiring land
for ‘public purpose’ (the definition of which has not been made public).The government
has even sought to take away the right of appeal by those whose land stands to be
confiscated by making the Supreme Court the only appellate forum.

Globalization has been another threat to indigenous communities as private

conglomerates (including foreign multi-nationals) encroach upon rural lands, hitherto
the domain of tribal and other indigenous communities, to build the government’s
desired industrial infra-structure. The proposed amendments to the 1894 Act, if carried
out, are likely to generate new waves of displacement as the Act will then make it even
easier for private interests to acquire land.

1. Natural disaster-induced displacement: There has been massive and recurrent

displacement due to floods, cyclones and landslides. A report by the Centre for
Science and Environment (1991) states that India is the most flood- affected
country in the world after Bangladesh and that over 30 million people are
displaced annually. Flood- affected areas shot up from an average of 6.4 million
hectares a year in the1950s to 9 million hectares in the 1980s. Government flood
control measures mainly consist of dams and embankments. Over 400 km of
embankments have been built annually since 1954 and 256 large dams with an
average height of 15 metres and above had been constructed by 1986; 154 more
were under construction. Yet all these have failed to control floods and indeed
dams are now cited as an important cause of floods while embankments have
disrupted the natural drainage system in the flood plains.
 ‘Natural’ disaster-led displacement is never recorded after the initial dose of relief
and rehabilitation assistance. One of the most serious aspects of the
displacement belonging to this category has been the fact that the displacement
has been silent but acute and frequent.
2. Displacement from Dams and Reservoirs : Various dams and reservoirs such as
Bhakhra Nangal Dam, Sardar Sarovar Dam, Tehri Dam, Bargi Dam and many
others of this nature have been constructed, which have rendered nearly 50 lakh
homeless and they are facing the problems of displacement, though government
took to rehabilitation work, but displaced people are not satisfied Narmada
Bachao Andolan is still on for the rehabilitation of the displaced people.
3. Industrial Development and Displacement: Large size industrial plants to boost
the national economy were erected and land acquired for the purpose had
 displaced nearly 50 lakh people so far. These people are not satisfied with the
compensation paid to them and efforts are made for their rehabilitation. It may
be stressed that some industries produce goods of domestic use in large
quantities which has rendered large number of workers, engaged in small and
cottage industries jobless. Number of such displaced persons cannot be counted.
4. New Forest Policy and Displacement: This policy has banned traditional tribal
population from taking herbs and earn their bread thus crores of people feel
displaced without proper rehabilitation plans for the good of the people.
5. Displacement caused by Urban Facilities : Government is developing Mandi
Samiti, transport facilities, educational institutions, sports facilities, etc., in urban
areas for which land around urban areas have been acquired by the government
and small farmers of those areas have been displaced

Institutional responses

1. India has no national policy and legal institutional framework to deal with either
refugees or IDPs. India has not ratified the 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol
and does not permit UNHCR access to most refugee groups. In the absence of a
permanent institutional structure to oversee refugee issues, the granting of
refugee status has been at the discretion of the political authorities. Due to a
similar absence of a national policy on resettlement and rehabilitation of IDPs,
there has been only piecemeal and ad hoc initiatives at project and state level.
2. Even the latest Draft National Policy for Rehabilitation of Persons: Displaced as a
Consequence of Acquisition of Land proposed by the Ministry of Rural
Development does not deal with any other type of displacement except that
arising from land acquisition. This draft also totally disregards the plight and
interests of IDPs of other categories, including those fleeing human rights
violations, physical violence and communal and other sources of tension.
3. Crucially, government accountability for the consequences of state-imposed
displacement has been virtually absent While the states have aggressively
clamoured for more benefits from development projects, they have consistently
haggled over their share of rehabilitation costs and totally disregarded the plight
of those displaced The Draft National Policy for Rehabilitation is a multi-
dimensional response to displacement with full rehabilitation covering
 The entire community (landless labourers, landholders, houseless, householders
and even the unemployed and the forest dwellers),
 Their sociocultural cost of displacement and
 Economic dimensions such as upgrading of skill levels and the accumulation of
physical assets as well as social capital.
4. There is no international agency to deal with such types of dis- placement
UNHCR’s mandate in this regard has been both ad hoc and unsystematic.Only
recently has UNHCR redefined its mandate to allow for the inclusion of IDPs in
certain situations: when such people are present in or going back to the same
areas as returning refugees; when they are living alongside a refugee population
and have similar needs for protection and assistance; where the same factors
 have given rise to both internal and external population movements and where
there are good reasons for addressing those problems by means of a single
humanitarian operation; where there is a potential for cross-border movement
and where the provision of assistance to the internally displaced may enable
them to remain in safety in their own country.
5. Displacement is not migration, because migration is on account of individual’s
free will for his own good while displacement is forced by the state. Sometimes
the government provides some facilities to the displaced person and families and
sometime they are asked to make their own arrangements.

Measures to Check Displacement

Since the problem of development induced displacement is a question of life and death
for a very large population, therefore, we suggest following measures to check the
problems

1. Before undertaking any development project it must be evaluated by experts so

that only minimum numbers of people are displaced
2. The execution of such big projects be handled by honest and efficient persons so
that they are completed in due time and proper rehabilitation of displaced is
ensured
3. Plans must be made for the employment of the displaced people.
4. Cash compensation to displaced persons does not serve the purpose. Therefore,
they should be provided with living space, educational and medical facilities for
their children and family members as well as employment to the displaced
5. Dispersal of industries instead of their concentration in some selected areas will
benefit large number of people and reduce the large scale displacement

Environmental Problems :

1. Environmental problems means overall lowering of environmental qualities

because of adverse changes brought in by human activities in the basic structure
of the components of the environment to such an extent that these adverse
changes affect all biological communities in particular. Environmental pollution
and environmental degradation terms are used interchangeably but these are
different concepts. Pollution is the cause for the degradation of environment The
degradation of environment is caused by pollution and hazard/ disasters. The
hazards or disasters are sudden by natural processes or by human activities which
require the immediate relief.
2. Environmental pollution is taking place due to slow and gradual human activities,
e.g., increase of human population, establishing factories and industries,
development of transportation facilities, etc. The pollution degrades the quality
of the environment which can be protected by proper environmental
management and assessment
 3. Environmental and ecological changes are the result of processes of the
‘economic and technological’ growth. With the socio-economic, scientific and
technological development has emerged the serious problem of environmental
degradation. Environmental degradation leaves direct impact on the ecology and
thus is caused ecological imbalance because of marked reduction in the
ecosystem and ecological diversity. The ecological imbalance is the sign of
environmental degradation. It can be easily observable in living organisms.
4. The interaction between the environment and society depends largely on the
social and political systems within which arise the environmental and ecological
problems. The capitalistic and socialistic system, perception and reactions to the
environment are quite different Socialistic system lays emphasis on the social
importance of nature resources and environmental problems. The capitalistic
system has selfish international motive, regarding the exploitation of natural
resources.
5. Capitalism runs on the logic of maximizing profits. To maximize profits, capitalists
try to grow continually. No amount of profit is enough. Hence, more and more
should be produced and sold For more production, more resources are needed As
we consume excessive natural resources, environmental degradation takes place.
6. School of social ecology points out that, different social groups have different
norms and values in relation to the idea of environment Hence the capitalists see
environment as an aluminum mine to be extracted to maximize profits; the
tribals, on the other hand view environment as a beneficiate. Hence they
preserve trees and animals and extract only that much of resources as can be
sustainably extracted.
7. In modern societies, the lifestyle of affluent people is dominated by
consumerism. In consumerism, consumption becomes an end in itself. This
happens when members of society generally believe that greater your
consumption, happier you are. Greater consumption does not make us happy.
But consumerism becomes an integral part of social values hence needs become
unlimited and even the government promotes spending to stimulate economic
growth.
8. According to Ulrich Beck (1992) in every stage of history technology has
developed to harness environment Technology is a primary tool of social change.
However, today’s complex technology leads to pollution and degrades
environment. Such complex technology is also prone to error. More the
complexity of a technology more is the risk of error. In spite of this our society
uses it with the hope that in future, better technologies will be developed to
compensate and overcome the effects of present technologies. Basically, our
society ‘risks’ using these technologies. Beck calls modern societies as ‘risk
societies.’

Causes of Environmental Problems

1. The development of modern technologies.

2. The increase in the human population.
 3. There is pressure on natural resources.
4. The high rate of exploitation of natural resources.
5. Growing industries and factories.
6. Increasing human settlements and urbanization.
7. The development of economic functions of man.
8. Deforestation: Conversion of forest land into agricultural land and pastures.
9. Agricultural Development High concentration of chemicals and fertilizers pollute
the soils or degrade the soils.
10.Population Growth: Ever increasing human population places greater demands
on the finite resources of earth.
11.Industrial development
12.Urbanization: The formation and growth of big slum areas, air pollution, smoke,
dust.
13.Modern Productive Technology : Construction of huge dams and reservoirs upset
the equilibrium of rocks.

Some Suggestions to Prevent Environmental Problems and Sustainability

Pollution of our environment is increasingly posing problems for man’s survival on
earth. This has not happened in a day or two. Continuously we have been contaminating
and damaging our environment Man has been continuously ignoring ‘the laws of
nature’ and disturbing the ecological balance. Scientists and environmentalists have
already warned the impending tragedy if the environment is continuously contaminated
Dr. Einstein said ‘All our technological process our very civilization is like the axe in the
hand of the pathological criminal.So like pathological criminals we have mercilessly
destroyed the forest and converted fertile land into desert”There should be final stop
for this creeping paralysis.We must think in terms of protecting our environment which
protects us in turn. Some suggestions could be given in this regard

1. It is necessary to undertake an appropriate National Industrial Policy so as to

protect our national interest including the environmental interests.It is known
fact that unregulated industrialization has been causing environmental pollution.
Hence it is necessary to implement very strictly the National Industrial Policy.
2. Uncontrolled urbanization should be stopped Urbanization has been taking place
in an unprecedented manner. Existing cities are growing and new cities are
coming up. There is neither regulation nor any control over the growth of cities.
These cities are spoiling the nearby environment. Only through proper
regulations and control the unwanted effects of urbanization could be stopped
3. Owners of motor vehicles are to be instructed strictly to use pollution control
gadgets. The use of these instruments can help to reduce pollution caused by
vehicles.
4. The sewage system of the cities is to be revised Sewage wastes let into streams,
rivers, lakes and coastal waters are causing several problems. Hence sewage
water is to be purified before it is allowed to join rivers, lakes or coastal waters.
5. A separate arrangement is to be made to collect and transport the inorganic and
non-degradable garbage wastes to a distant place.The unwanted inorganic
 substances like tins, plastic bags, boxes, bottles, etc., are to be deposited
separately in the dustbins so as to help the municipal administration to collect
and take it to a distant place. People should also ban the use of plastic bags at
least in some specified fields and areas.
6. Recycling non-degradable materials. It is necessary to minimize the use of non-
degradable materials. We must also make necessary arrangements to recycle and
reuse discarded materials. People must help organizations which recycle such
materials.
7. Regular removal of the garbage. The municipal and city administrations must take
steps to remove the garbage, dust and other thrown away articles deposited in
the dustbins. People also should learn the art of depositing the garbage only in
the dustbins and not throwing it everywhere.
8. Launching of save environment campaigns and movements. Since sizeable
number of Indians are still illiterate. It is necessary to educate them to keep the
environment neat and clean. They must also be educated regarding the adverse
consequences of pollution. A national level campaigns or movement to ‘save
environment’ could be launched with the active participation of political leaders,
labour leaders, peasant leaders, student leaders and leaders of various religious
and cultural organizations.
9. Encouragement to conservation of forest. It is necessary to awaken the people
about the importance of forests in preserving the purity of our environment
Appropriate steps should be taken to conserve the existing forests. Special efforts
should also be made to develop gardens, parks, within the premises of hospitals,
educational institutions, industries, government offices, etc. ‘ Vanamahotsava’
should not become a governmental rituaL There should be active participation of
the people in it ‘Plant a tree before cutting one’ should become a meaningful and
a practical slogan.
10.Special financial assistance for protecting the environment In our national budget
there should be a provision for a special fund to give financial assistance to the
local bodies to safeguard the environmental interests.
11.Creating Environmental Awareness among the Children. Special arrangements
must be made to create environmental awareness among the children and the
young people. Training given to the children in this direction at an early age
especially in schools and colleges go a long way in creating awareness to protect
the environment.
12.Launching of Environmental Education Programmes. It is necessary to educate
the people to take proper precaution to save our environment. A specialized body
of the U.N.O. namely UNEP has stressed the importance of such a kind of
education long back in 1977.

The environmental education programmes should include the following :

1. Environmental education and training at school college and university level.

2. Environmental sciences, which deal with advanced science and its effect on air,
water and soil degradation.
 3. Environmental engineering, which includes the study to assess the impact of
engineering science on environment

Mrs. Indira Gandhi, the late prime minister of India had told: “Modern man must re-
establish his unbroken link with nature and with life. He must again learn to invoke the
energy and to recognize, as did the ancients in India centuries ago, that we can take
from the earth and atmosphere only so much as one put back into them.”

1. The most important thing is to bring about a change in the present attitude
towards the industrialized countries model of development We should recognize
the inherent flaws in the present model and develop alternate growth models
that give due weightage to ecological aspects as welL Above all we should realize
that natural systems have a threshold point beyond which it is impossible to
replenish them. This change in attitude can be brought about by mass media
campaigns, structured education, political leaders etc. For instance the award-
winning film an inconvenient Truth byA1 Gore seemed to have a huge impact on
the way many of us look at environmental issues.
2. Preservation and the sustainable use of natural resources have to be given due
importance. Over exploitation of any form of forest resources, marine wealth,
fossil-energy sources, soil resources etc., should be avoided Extra efforts should
be taken to conserve and replenish nature. For instance, whenever a
hydroelectric project is planned due care should be taken to develop forests in
the surrounding areas to compensate for the vegetation lost due to the project.
3. The political class and the bureaucrats have a major role in bringing about
sustainability. This is mainly by designing policies and regulations that would
promote green technologies, while discouraging those initiatives that adversely
affect the ecosystems. For example, the Clean Development Mechanism under
the Kyoto Protocol is one such initiative.At the country level the subsidies given to
solar water heaters are also done with the same purpose.
4. Sustainability cannot be achieved at isolated pockets as the issues of ecology are
global For example, the loss of tropical rain forests in South America would
adversely affect the biodiversity of the whole world.
5. So, the initiatives for sustainability should be carried on across the country
borders as well. This can be mainly achieved with the help of the UN bodies such
as UNEP, multilateral bodies like G8, environmentalist organizations like Green
Peace etc.
6. In addition to global collaborations, in generous and micro-level solutions have to
be developed and tapped. This can be in terms of traditional knowledge, like the
use of Neem, products as pesticides or small-scale projects like the construction
of small check dams to recharge ground water. Such local solutions are very
effective in preserving nature and taking us in the path of sustainability. The
initiatives for sustainability should not be Top Down i.e., the programes should
not be passed on as prescriptions to the concerned stakeholders by someone
higher up. Instead once the overall policies and guidelines are framed by the
higher ups, the micro aspects of implementation should be left to the ground
level stakeholders. In simple terms, unless a large public takes up the cause of
 sustainability, the path of sustainable development is never going to be an easy
one.
7. Green Technology is one of the most important pillars for sustainability.We will
be directly contributing to the conservations of natural systems by developing
and promoting the usage of eco-friendly methods. This can be in the area of
energy, recyclable goods, transportation etc. For example, the CNG powered
buses in New Delhi lead to sustainability in the areas of public transportation
system. In this era of globalization and multinational corporate, the agenda of
sustainability should also be vigorously pursued by the private sector. Companies
should not only take the path of development in their present ventures but also
work towards developing new eco-friendly solutions.The green agenda should be
adhered to.
8. We should recognize that Environment, Economy and Community are integrated
and interdependent, and we cannot focus on only one aspect totally ignoring the
others. This should be kept in mind when devising any developmental project For
instance, a project aimed at exploiting the coal reserves in an area should also
talk adequate measures to preserve the ecosystems in that area in the best
possible manner. This needs to be addressed at the planning stage of the project
itself and for this purpose various tools of Environment Impact Assessment (EIA)
can be utilized.

Poverty, Deprivation and Inequalities in India

Poverty is a level of living that is so low that inhibits the physical mental social cultural
economic development of the individuals or the groups.The problem of poverty in India
after Independence can be described in terms of the social classes, castes or groups
affected with poverty in rural and urban areas. It can also be discussed in terms of
magnitude of the problem and the linkage between rural and urban poverty.

Rural and Urban Poor :

In India, large sections of the population live in abject poverty. The poor live in rural
and urban areas.

1. In the rural areas, they consist of small landholders, agricultural labourers,

artisans and craftsmen. They mainly belong to the scheduled castes, scheduled
tribes and other backward castes.
2. In urban areas, the poor people are usually engaged in the informal sector and
some low paid jobs in the organized sector.They are employed in unskilled semi-
skilled and also some low-income jobs.
3. They work as wage earners in industries, trade, commerce, transport and
construction industry. A large number of them are also engaged in self-employed
activities as rickshaw-puller, shoe-repairers, and vendors, owners of a tea shop
 and pan-bidi shop and even beggars.The urban poor living as slum dwellers and
pavement dwellers are found in abundance in Indian towns and cities.
4. The condition of both the urban and the rural poor is miserable. They own very
small assets or negligible assets.Their income and expenditure are very low. Their
wages are meager. Many of them are unemployed and underemployed which
enhances their pangs of poverty. The rate of literacy is lowest among them. They
do not enjoy much of the benefits of available health facilities. They do not get
even enough food to eat Their housing condition is sub-human or inhuman. They
are severely exploited and oppressed by the privileged class both in the rural and
urban areas.

Magnitude of Rural and Urban Poverty:

1. The magnitude of poverty in India has been estimated in terms of the nutritional
criterion which takes into account only the minimum food intake of a person to
maintain working capacity. But some non-food items such as clothing, housing,
education and health-care are also equally essential for a minimum standard of
human living and hence must be considered while analyzing poverty. Moreover,
in a developing country like India, we find that the privileged class enjoys all
available modern amenities and also indulges in conspicuous consumption.
2. This means that they buy goods and services which enhance socio-economic
status and which are not affordable to the poor. The majority of the people are,
on the other hand, not able to fulfil their minimum needs. There is a situation of
wide socio-economic inequalities.
3. Therefore, a proper approach to the problem of poverty has to take into
consideration the prevailing inequalities with regard to distribution of assets,
income and consumption expenditure both in the rural and urban areas.
4. The proportion of people below the poverty line is also very high. It is about 40
per cent of the population after 64 years of Independence even if we take the
official figure. Moreover, the number of the rural poor is more than four times
the number of the urban poor. According to Dutt and Sundharam rural poverty
directly affects urban poverty because most of the urban poor are migrants from
the villages. These people have been driven out of their villages due to poverty
there.

CAUSES AND PERSISTENCE OF POVERTY

In India, we find co-existence of abject poverty of the masses and affluence of the
privileged class both in the rural and urban areas since ages. The failure of the
government in resolving the problem of poverty has been generally attributed to rising
population, havoc of natural calamities such as drought and flood and resource
deficiency of individuals. It is true that the country is still at a low level of economic
development

But it is also certain that the major benefits of development have been cornered by the
richer sections of the population.
 1. In reality, poverty in India is a social product and not a natural phenomenon, been
socially generated reinforced and perpetuated It is consequence of extreme
socio-economic inequalities.
2. It results from differential position of different social classes, castes and groups in
economic, political social and religious domains of society. Roots of poverty lies in
the economic, political and social set up of society.
3. Demographic, natural and psychological factors are off-shoots of the highly
inegalitarian structure of society though they play an important role in
perpetuating poverty.

Historical Factors :

1. One historical reason is the low level of economic development under the
British colonial administration. Although the final impact of the British rule on
Indian living is still being debated there is no doubt that there was a substantial
negative impact on the Indian economy and standard of living of the people.
There was substantial deindustrialization in India under the British rule. Imports
of manufactured cotton cloth from Lancashire in England displaced much local
production, and India reverted to being an exporter of cotton yarn, not cloth.
2. As over 90 per cent of Indians were engaged in agriculture throughout the British
Raj period the impact on that sector was more important on living standards than
anything else. British policies involved sharply raising rural taxes that enabled
merchants and moneylenders to become large landowners.
3. Under the British, India began to export food grains and as a result, as many as 26
million people died in famines between 1875 and 1900. Britain’s main goals from
the Raj were to provide a market for British exports, to have India service its debt
payments to Britain, and for India to provide manpower for the British imperial
armies.The British Raj impoverished millions of people in India. Our natural
resources were plundered our industries worked to produce goods at low prices
for the British and our food grains were exported
4. The policies of the colonial government ruined traditional handicrafts and
discouraged development of industries like textiles. The low rate of growth
persisted until the nineteen eighties.

Economic Factors :

1. Unequal distribution of Economic Resources/ Assets/Wealth: The basic

economic factor responsible for the problem of poverty in India is the highly
unequal distribution of the economic resource of the country among various
social classes and castes. We find wide inequalities in distribution of assets and
income between the rich and the poor both in rural and urban areas.
2. The productivity of labour remains low in agriculture due to highly unequal
distribution of landholdings. Big landowners generally do not care much for
raising agricultural production because their needs are fulfilled even at low level
 of production. The small and marginal farmers do not possess enough resources
to make adequate use of modern input raising productivity.
3. The agricultural labourers do not feel much motivated to work hard due to their
low wages. The limited spread of the Green Revolution in agriculture has not
helped much in removing the problem of mass poverty. The benefits of limited
agricultural growth in agriculture have been grabbed by the rural rich.
4. The urban poor have to lead to miserable life due to their employment in low
paid jobs in the unorganized sector, low income activities of self-employment and
the problems of unemployment
5. Low capital formation:
6. Lack of infrastructure- Lack of Support System for Economic Development
7. Pressure of population on Available Resources:
8. Unemployment

Political Factors :

1. The political factors as also contributed to the prevalence of mass poverty in

India since ages. The state power has been controlled by the privileged ruling
class both in the urban and rural areas. The ruling class controls the machinery. It
directly or indirectly protects and promotes its class interests. But the mass of the
poor people have always remained powerless.
2. The need for the alleviation of poverty was well recognized by the leaders of
the Independent India. The Constitution of India directed government to take
initiatives for welfare of weaker and poor sections of society .
3. Accordingly, development had become the declared goal of the Central
government and of its principal agencies i.e. – the Planning Commission. One of
the objectives of planning is to remove poverty in society. However, these
institutions were to work within overall socio-economic infrastructure of the
country and the developing political process. But because of the strategic position
of the ruling class and adopted model of development right from the beginning,
the development has been drifting away from the desired goals. Land Reform act
can not be implemented in many states because of Unwillingness of ruling class
(Dominant Castes)
4. At the beginning, the planning was primarily restricted to the national level
Hardly any attention was paid to the problems arising out of exclusion of large
sections of society and exclusion of some regions during British Period. The few
measures that were taken were adopted to deal with specific problems faced by
certain areas or ares facing natural calamities. Some of the already developed
regions enjoyed the privilege to develop further at the cost of the backward
regions which continued to stagnate.

Socio-Cultural Factors :

1. The caste system has been an important factor in perpetuating poverty of the
masses. The rigid stratification of the caste system imposed severe restrictions on
 occupation mobility. Generally speaking, a person born in poor lower caste lived
and dies in the same social position. The caste system imposed social distance
between castes with regard to marriage, food habitation and general social
interaction.The upper castes were considered socially and ritually superior and
the lower castes were declined inferior. The upper castes practiced discrimination
against the lower castes in social and religious matters.
2. Moreover, the belief in ‘Karma’ ‘Dharma’ justified the inegalitarian and unjust
social order. It held that poverty is the consequence of one’s papa karma (bad
deeds) in earlier births. Performance of Varna dharma was considered essential
was made to ward off any challenge to the existing social system in which the
majority of the people suffered from abject poverty while the ruling class lived a
happy and prosperous life.
3. Also most of the Indian states failed to implement land redistribution policies.A
large section of the rural poor in India are the small farmers. The land that they
have is, in general less fertile and dependent on rains. Their survival depends on
subsistence crops and sometimes on livestock. With the rapid growth of
population and without alternative sources of employment, the per-head
availability of land for cultivation has steadily declined leading to fragmentation
of land holdings.The income from these small land holdings is not sufficient to
meet the family’s basic requirements. Farmers committing suicide due to their
inability to pay back the loans that they have taken for cultivation and other
domestic needs as their crops have failed due to drought or other natural
calamities.
4. Most members of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes are not able to
participate in the emerging employment opportunities in different sectors of the
urban and rural economy as they do not have the necessary knowledge and skills
to do so. A large section of urban poor in India are largely the overflow of the
rural poor who migrate to urban areas in search of employment and a livelihood
Industrialisation has not been able to absorb all these people. This resulted in less
job opportunities and low growth rate of incomes. This was accompanied by a
high growth rate of population. The two combined to make the growth rate of
per capita income very low. The failure at both the fronts: promotion of economic
growth and population control perpetuated the cycle of poverty.
5. With the spread of irrigation and the Green revolution, many job opportunities
were created in the agriculture sector. But the effects were limited to some parts
of India. The industries, both in the public and the private sector, did provide
some jobs. But these were not enough to absorb all the job seekers.
6. Unable to find proper jobs in cities, many people started working as rickshaw
pullers, vendors, construction workers, domestic servants etc. With irregular
small incomes, these people could not afford expensive housing. They started
living in slums on the outskirts of the cities and the problems of poverty, largely a
rural phenomenon also became the feature of the urban sector.
7. Further, nowadays priority is given to values which emphasize the fulfillment of
one’s self interests. Materialism has got an upper hand over humanitarian
values.We witness a mad rush among the rich people for raising their social status
 through indulging in conspicuous consumption, i.e., consuming those goods and
services which reflect one’s financial strength and prestige like buying jewellery,
cars, latest electronic gadgets, etc. This emphasis on materialism and pursuit of
self interest has helped to widen the gap between the rich and the poor.
8. Indebtedness : In order to fulfil social obligations and observe religious
ceremonies, people in India, including the very poor, spend a lot of money. Small
farmers need money to buy agricultural inputs like seeds, fertilizer, pesticides etc.
Since poor people hardly have any savings, they borrow. Unable to repay because
of poverty, they become victims of indebtedness. So the high level of
indebtedness is both the cause and effect of poverty.
9. All this has created two distinct groups in society: those who posses the means
of production and earn good incomes and those who have only their labour to
trade for survival, Over the years, the gap between the rich and the poor in India
has widened
10.Jajmani System and Bondage System : The problem of poverty continues as ever
with an added momentum.The poor has strong feelings of marginality, of
helplessness, of dependence, of inferiority, sense of resignation, fatalism and low
level of aspiration. These tendencies are transmitted from one generation to the
next Therefore, the children of the poor are very often not psychologically geared
to take full advantage of the changing conditions or increased opportunities that
occur in their life. Thus the problem of poverty gets perpetuated.

POVERTY ANALYZED
Rural and Urban Poor
In India, large sections of the population live in abject poverty.The poor live in both
rural and urban areas. In the rural areas, they consist of small landholders (Small and
Marginal Farmers), agricultural labourers, artisans, and craftsmen. They mainly belong
to the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward castes.

In urban areas, the poor people are usually engaged in the informal sector and some
low paid jobs in the organized sector.They are employed in unskilled semi-skilled and
also some low-income jobs.They work as wage earners in industries, trade, commerce,
transport and construction industry. A large number of them are also engaged in self-
employed activities as rickshaw-puller, shoe-repairers, and vendors, owners of a tea
shop and pan-bidi shop and even beggars. The urban poor living as slum dwellers and
pavement dwellers are found in abundance in Indian towns and cities.

The Regional Pattern of Poverty :

1. Poverty in India also has another aspect or dimension. The proportion of poor
people is not the same in every state. Although state level poverty has witnessed
a secular decline from the levels of early seventies, the success rate of reducing
poverty varies from state to state.
2. On the other hand\ poverty is still a serious problem in Orissa, Bihar; Assam,
Tripura and Uttar Pradesh. As the Graph 3.2 shows, Orissa and Bihar continue to
 be the two poorest states with poverty ratios of 47 and 43 per cent respectively.
Along with rural poverty, urban poverty is also high in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh,
Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
3. In comparison, there has been a significant decline in poverty in Kerala, Jammu
and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and West Bengal States like
Punjab and Haryana have traditionally succeeded in reducing poverty with the
help of high agricultural growth rates. Kerala has focused more on human
resource development. In West Bengal land reform measures have helped in
reducing poverty. In Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu public distribution of food
grains could have been responsible for the improvement.

APPROACHES TOWARDS POVERTY ALLEVIATION AND DEVELOPMENT

Poverty is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon. The institutions addressing
the issues of poor therefore need to engage in many sectors and with several service
providers. The Government of India has taken a number of initiatives towards
eradicating poverty as poverty remains to be the major hurdle towards sustainable
development in the Country.

Growth Oriented Approach

1. In the beginning, India’s Five Year Plans laid emphasis on the growth of economy
of the country as a whole through raising production and the per capita income. It
was postulated that the benefits of rapid economic growth would automatically
trickle down to the poor people and raise their living standard through provident
them more employment opportunities, higher income and more wages.
Moreover, no distinction was made between rural and urban poverty and the
latter was considered to simultaneously vanish with the former.
2. The Government began with the Community Development Project (CDP) in
1952. Under this project the whole community in a particular area was taken as a
homogeneous unit The emphasis was given on economic growth. The project
covered the programmes like improvement in agriculture, animal husbandry,
village and small industries, health and sanitation, social education etc.
3. An effort was made to effect changes in the pattern of landownership through
various land reform measures such as the abolition of the zamindari system,
tenancy reforms and ceilings on land holding and distribution of surplus land to
the small landholders and landless people.
4. In the sixties, antipoverty programmes concentrated in places and in crops where
these could significantly raise production. The important programmes comprised
the Intensive Agricultural District Programme (IADP) and the
Intensive Agricultural Area Programme (IAAP) launched in 1960 and 1964
respectively. Since the mid-sixties, the Government has mainly helped the better
of farmers and big landowners to raise agricultural production through adopting
modern technology in the form of use of High Yielding Varieties (HYV) of seeds,
chemical fertilizers, tractors, water pumps etc.
In course of time it was realized that the benefits of these development programmes
have been largely cornered by the privileged section of the rural population. The impact
of land reform measures was also very limited The conditions of the poor did not
improve. In fact, their number increased both in rural and urban areas.

Growth with Social Justice, Social Empowerment and Inclusivenes.

When it was observed that the growth oriented approach was a failure in effecting the
trickling down of benefits of development to the poor, the five year plans started giving
special emphasis on the cause of social justice.The motto of development since the
early seventies became growth with social justice. Special pogrammes were launched to
benefit the backward areas and backward section of the population e.g. small and
marginal farmers and landless labourers and especially those belonging to the
scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes.

Programmes in Rural Areas :

1. In rural areas, various programmes came into operation such as Small Farmers
Development Agency (SEDA). Marginal Farmers and Agricultural Labourers
(MFAL) and Drought Prone Area Programmes (DPAP).
2. The concept of Antyodaya (all-round development of all poorest section in each
village) came in 1977. Food for work programme was started in the same year to
provide employment to the rural poor particularly in slack season.This
programme was rechristened National Rural Employment Programme (NREP) in
1980.
3. Special sub-plans were introduced to remove regional disparities and
development especially of the hill and tribal areas.
4. Minimum Needs Programme was launched to secure to the rural areas certain
basic amenities in the field of education, health, drinking water, electrification,
roads and home sites for the poor.
5. The national scheme of Training Rural Youth for Self-Employment (TRYSEM) was
started in 1979 with a view to removing unemployment among the rural youth.
6. The Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP) was initiated in
1983 to offer more employment opportunities for the rural
landless.The Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) aimed at
providing assistance to families below the poverty line to raise their income and
assets over the poverty line. The Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY) has been launched
in April 1989 for removal of unemployment
7. More recently Government has launched Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Programme: The mandate of the Programme is to
provide at least100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to
every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual
work. It is provided in the Act that, while providing employment, priority shall be
given to women in such a way that, at least l/3rd of the beneficiaries shall be
women, who have registered and requested for work under the Scheme.
The Goals of MGNREGA are,

1. Social protection for the most vulnerable people living in rural India by providing
employment opportunities.
2. Livelihood security for the poor through creation of durable assets, improved
water security, soil conservation and higher land productivity.
3. Drought-proofing and flood management in rural India.
4. Empowerment of the socially disadvantaged especially women. Scheduled Castes
(SCs) and Schedules Tribes (STs), through the processes of a rights- based
legislation
5. Strengthening decentralised participatory planning through convergence of
various antipoverty and livelihoods initiatives.
6. Deepening democracy at the grass-roots by strengthening Panchayati Raj
Institutions
7. Effecting greater transparency and accountability in governance

Thus, MGNREGA is a powerful instrument for ensuring inclusive growth in rural India
through its impact on social protection, livelihood security and democratic
empowerment.

Indira Awas Yojana (IAY)

Rural housing development has to be seen in the context of poverty alleviation and
overall rural development Housing lays foundation for living with dignity for the rural
poor by dispelling the gloom of being shelter-less. Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY) is a
centrally sponsored scheme for rural BPL families who are either houseless or having
inadequate housing facilities for constructing a safe and durable shelter. IAY has the
following components :

1. Assistance for construction of a new house

2. Upgradation of kutcha or dilapidated houses
3. Provision of house sites

95% of the total budget would be utilized for the components relating to new houses,
upgradation of
houses and provision of house sites and administrative expenses. The remaining 5%
would be reserved
for special projects of-

1. Rehabilitation of BPL families affected by natural calamities

2. Rehabilitation of BPL families affected by violence and law and order problems
3. Settlement of freed bonded labourers and liberated manual scavengers
4. Settlement of particularly vulnerable tribal groups
5. New technology demonstration – especially with focus on affordable and green
technologies.
SWARNJAYANTI GRAM SWAROJGAR YOJANA (SGSY)
The Union Ministry of Rural Development launched a restructured poverty alleviation
programme, Swarjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) with effect from 1April 1999,
which replaced IRDP and its allied schemes, viz..Training of Rural Youth for self
Employment (TRYSEM), Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA),
Supply of improved Tool kits to Rural Artisans (SITRA), Ganga Kalyan Yojana (GKY) and
Million Wells Scheme (MWS).

1. The scheme aims at establishing a large number of micro enterprises in the rural
areas of the country. The objective of the scheme is to bring every assisted BPL,
family, above the poverty line in three years by providing them income
generating assets through a mix of bank credit and government subsidy.
2. SGSY is a holistic poverty alleviation scheme covering all aspects of self
employment such as organisation of poor into self help groups, training, credit,
technology, infrastructure and marketing. The scheme is funded on 75%25 basis
by central and the respective State Governments and is implemented by DRD and
through Panchayat Samitis. Major share of assistance is for 4-5 key activities
identified at the block level………..SGSY has been restructured into National Rural
Livelihood Mission.

National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM)

The Ministry of Rural Development has re-designed and re-structured the Swarnjayanti
Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY) into National Livelihood Mission (NRLM) as a cornerstone
of national poverty reduction strategy.The objective of the Mission is to reduce poverty
among rural BPL by promoting diversified and gainful self-employment and wage
employment opportunities which would lead to an appreciable increase in income on
sustainable basis. In the long run, it will ensure broad based inclusive growth and
reduce disparities by spreading out the benefits from the islands of growth across the
regions, sectors and communities. The core belief of National Rural Livelihoods Mission
(NRLM) is that the poor have innate capabilities and a strong desire to come out of
poverty.

They are entrepreneurial an essential coping mechanism to survive under conditions of

poverty. The challenge is to unleash their capabilities to generate meaningful livelihoods
and enable them to come out of poverty.The first step in this process is motivating them
to form their own institutions. They and their institutions need to be provided sufficient
capacities to access finance and to expand their skills and assets and convert them into
meaningful livelihoods. This requires continuous handholding support An external
dedicated sensitive support structure, from the national level to the sub-district level is
required to induce such social mobilization, institution building and livelihoods
promotion.
NRLM implementation is in a Mission Mode. This enables :

1. Shift from the present allocation based strategy to a demand driven strategy,
enabling the States to formulate their own livelihoods-based poverty reduction
action plans,
2. Focus on targets, outcomes and time bound delivery,
3. Continuous capacity building, imparting requisite skills and creating linkages with
livelihoods opportunities for the poor, including those emerging in the organized
sector, and
4. Monitoring against targets of poverty outcomes.

As NRLM follows a demand driven strategy, the States have the flexibility to develop
their livelihoods-based perspective plans and annual action plans for poverty reduction.
The second dimension of demand driven strategy implies that the ultimate objective is
that the poor will drive the agenda, through participatory planning at grassroots level
implementation of their own plans, reviewing and generating further plans based on
their experiences. Mahila Kisan Shashaktikaran Yojna: As important component of
NRLM.

JANASHREE BIMA YOJANA

The Janashree Bima Yojana (JBY) was launched in 10 August 2000. The Scheme has
replaced Social Security Group Insurance Scheme (SSGIS) and Rural Group Life Insurance
Scheme (RGLIS). 45 occupational groups have been covered under this scheme.

1. The Scheme provides for a insurance cover of Rs. 30,000 on natural death. On
death/total permanent disability due to accident, the benefit is Rs. 75,000/-. On
partial permanent disability due to accident, the benefit is Rs. 37,500/-.
2. The premium for the scheme is Rs. 200/- per member per annum, 50 per cent of
which is met out of Social Security Fund The balance premium is to be borne by
the member and / or Nodal Agency.

AAM ADMI BIMA YOJANA

AAM ADMI BIMA YOJNA, a new Social Security Scheme for rural landless households
was launched on 2nd October, 2007 by the then Union Finance Minister at Shimla. The
head of the family or one earning member in the family of rural landless household is
covered under the Scheme.

1. The premium ofRs. 200/- per person per annum is shared equally by the Central
Government and the State Government Head of the family or one earning
member of the family aged between 18 and 59 years is covered for an amount of
Rs. 30,000/- under the Scheme.
2. In case of death or total disability (including loss of 2 eyes / 2 limbs) due to
accident, a sum ofRs. 75,000/ and in case of partial permanent disability (loss
1eye / 1limb) due to accident, a sum ofRs. 37,500/- is payable to the
nominee/beneficiary.
 3. A free add-on benefit for the children of the member of AAM ADMI BIMA YOJANA
is provided under the Scheme in the form of a scholarship at the rate of Rs. 100/ -
per month and is given to maximum two children studying between IX to XII
Standard payable half yearly on 1st July and 1st January each year. During the
financial year 2009-2010, scholarships were disbursed to 86,906 children
amounting to Rs. 54.48 Crores.

NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL INSURANCE SCHEME (NAIS)

NAIS was implemented from Rabi 1999-2000 season replacing Comprehensive Camp
Insurance Scheme (CCIS). The Scheme is being implemented by the Agriculture
Insurance Company of India Ltd on behalf of Ministry of Agriculture.

1. The main objective of the Scheme is to protect the farmers against the losses
suffered by them due to crop failure on account of natural calamities, such as
drought, food hailstorm, cyclone, fire, pest/ diseases, etc, so as to restore their
credit worthiness for the ensuring seasons.
2. The Scheme is available to all the farmers both loanee and non loanee
irrespective of the size of their holding. The Scheme envisages coverage of all
crops including cereals, millets, pulses, oilseeds and annual commercial and
horticulture crops in respect of which past yield data of 10 years, is available.
3. At present; 70 different Food and Oilseed crops are covered during Kharif and
Rabi seasons. Sugarcane, Potato, Ginger, Onion, Turmeric, Chilly Jute, Tapioca,
Banana, Pineapple, Brinjal Coriander Cumin, Fennel French Bean, Garlic, Isabgol
Fenugreek and Tomato have been brought under insurance coverage among the
annual commercial/horticultural crops.
4. As per the provisions of National Agriculture Insurance Scheme, the flat premium
rates are 3.5 per cent for Bajra and Oilseeds, 2.5 per cent for other Kharif
crops;1.5 per cent for Wheat, and 2 per cent for other Rabi crops. In case
actuarial rates are less than prescribed flat premium rates, the lower rate is
applicable for food crops and oilseeds.
5. In case of annual commercial and horticulture crops, actuarial rates are charged.
At present, 10 per cent subsidy in premium is allowed for small and marginal
farmers, shared equally by Central and State government.However, some State
and Union Territory governments are also providing higher subsidy to small and
marginal farmers and subsidy to other farmers.
6. The Scheme operates on the basis of Area Approach’ for widespread calamities.
The unit of insurance may be Gram Pnachayat, Mandal Hobli, Circle, Phirka, Block,
Taluka etc., to be decided by the respective State / UT Government.
7. At present, 25 States and 2 Union Territories are implementing the
Scheme. Some of the states have notified lower unit of insurance for village.

National Food Security Mission (NFSM)

The National Development Council (NDC)in its 53rd meeting held on 29th May, 2007
adopted a resolution to launch a Food Security Mission comprising rice, wheat and
pulses to increase the production of rice by 10 million tons, wheat by 8 million tons and
pulses by 2 million tons by the end of the Eleventh Plan (2011-12). Accordingly, A
Centrally Sponsored Scheme, ‘National Food Security Mission’, has been launched from
2007-08 to operationalize the above mentioned resolution. The National Food Security
Mission has 3 components (i) Rice (ii) Wheat & (iii) Pulses.

The NFSM objectives are increasing production of rice, wheat and pulses through area
expansion and productivity enhancement in a sustainable manner in the identified
districts of the country, restoring soil fertility and productivity at the individual farm
level creation of employment opportunities, and enhancing farm level economy (i.e.
farm profits) to restore confidence amongst the farmers. Under NFSM, financial support
will be available for research in the following areas :

1. Conservation of natural resources (land, water) and their efficient use.

2. Integrated nutrient management
3. Integrated disease and pest management
4. Integrated weed management
5. Modification/refinements of farm machines/implements for different types of
soil/cropping systems.
6. Up scaling of improved crop varieties/hybrids in NFSM adopted states/
agroclimatic zones under water/ thermal stress conditions.
7. Nutrient management in acidic/ alkaline/ sodic soils.
8. Crop-husbandry.
9. Input use efficiency.
10.Rain-water harvesting management in kharif pulses.
11.Refinement of relay cropping systems.
12.Agronomic practices for intercropping systems involving pulses.
13.Quality seed storage studies in the humid and hot climatic conditions Coastal
areas.
14.Value addition in case of coarse cereals and pulses.
15.Precision farming-nutrient manager and crop manager

Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY)

The RKVY had aimed at achieving 4% annual growth in the agriculture sector during the
XI Plan period and is continuing in the 12th Plan, by ensuring a holistic development of
Agriculture and allied sectors. The main objectives of the scheme are :

1. To incentivise the states so as to increase public investment in Agriculture and

allied sectors.
2. To provide flexibility and autonomy to states in the process of planning and
executing Agriculture and allied sector schemes.
3. To ensure the preparation of agriculture plans for the districts and the states
based on agro-climatic conditions, availability of technology and natural
resources.
4. To ensure that the local needs/crops/priorities are better reflected in the
agricultural plans of the states.
 5. To achieve the goal of reducing the yield gaps in important crops, through
focused interventions.
6. To maximize returns to the farmers in agriculture and allied sectors.
7. To bring about quantifiable changes in the production and productivity of various
components of Agriculture and allied sectors by addressing them in a holistic
manner.

PROGRAMMES IN URBAN AREAS :

Further, in case of urban poverty we find a gradual change in the perception of the
planners. Urban poverty was not seen as a distinct problem in the early Five-Year Plan.
It was treated only as off-shoot of rural poverty. But this problem has been addressed
directly with the Seventh Five Year Plan. This plan envisaged a multi pronged strategy to
resolve the problem.

1. It aimed at a providing gainful employment to the unemployed, particularly

women and youth,
2. Raising the earnings of those already employed in low paid jobs;
3. Increasing the productivity and earnings of those who are self-employed
workers, and
4. Improving the access of the urban poor to basic amenities like education,
health-care, sanitation and safe drinking water.

JAWAHARLAL NEHRU NATIONAL URBAN RENEWAL MISSION (JNNURM)

1. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) was launched
on 3rd December 2005 with the objective of reforms driven and fast track
development of cities across the country, with focus on bringing about efficiency
in urban infrastructure; service delivery mechanisms, community participation
and accountability of Urban Local Bodies and Parastatal agencies towards citizens.
2. The duration of the Mission seeks to ensure sustainable development of select
cities. The subcomponent of Urban Infrastructure and Governance (UIG) for
identified 65 major cities and the Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for
small and medium towns (UIDSSMT) for all other cities and towns are
implemented by the Ministry of Urban Development
3. The main thrust of both UIG and UIDSSMT are support for urban infrastructure
projects relating to water supply including sanitation, sewerage, solid waste
management, etc.

URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE AND GOVERNANCE (UIG)

1. As per 2011 population census, 285.35 million people reside in Urban areas. It
constitutes 31% of the total population of the country. In post-independence era,
while population of India has grown three times, the urban population has grown
five times. The rising urban population has also given rise to increase in the
number of urban poor.
 2. As per 2001estimates, the slum population is estimated to be 61.8 million. The
ever increasing number of slum dwellers causes tremendous pressure on urban
basic services and infrastructure. In order to cope with massive problems that
have emerged as a result of rapid urban growth, it has become imperative to
draw up a coherent urbanization policy/strategy to implement projects in select
cities on mission mode.
3. In order to provide reforms linked Central assistance for development of
infrastructure, Mission Mode approach was adopted for implementation of urban
infrastructure improvement programme in a time bound manner in selected cities
as Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). It has been
launched on 3rd Dec. 2005. It follows two track strategies :

Track 1 consists of the main Mission (JNNURM) for integrated development in 65

identified cities. Track II consists of UIDSSMT and IHSDP for catering to other cities.

The 65 identified cities under Track I of the Mission have been classified in three
categories.

1. Mega Cities/Urban Agglomerates 7

2. Million plus cities/ Urban Agglomerates 28
3. Identified cities/Urban Agglomerates 30

Mission Objectives :

1. Focus attention on integrated development of infrastructural services in the cities

covered under the Mission.
2. Secure effective linkages between asset creation and asset management so that
the infrastructural services created in the cities are not only maintained efficiently
but also become self-sustaining over time.
3. Ensure adequate investment of funds to fulfill deficiencies in the urban
infrastructural services.
4. Scale up delivery of civic amenities and provision of utilities with emphasis on
universal access to the Urban poor.
5. Take up Urban renewal programme, i.e. redevelopment or inner (old) cities areas
to reduce congestion.

SWARNA JAYANTI SHAHARI ROZGAR YOJANA (SJSRY)

The SJSRY Scheme is in operation since Dec. 1997 in all urban and semi-urban towns of
India. The programme is applicable to all the cities and towns on a whole town basis.
The target population under SJSRY is the urban poor, those living below the poverty
lines as defined by the Planning Commission from time to time.

1. Under the scheme, women are to be assisted to the extent of not less than 30 per
cent Differently abled at 3 per cent and SC/STs at least to the extent of the
proportion of their strength in the local population. The scheme is funded on a
75:25 basis by the Central and the respective State Government :
 2. The scheme has five components as under :
 Urban Self Employment Programme (USEP)
 Urban Women Self-help Programme (UWSP)
 Skill Training for Employment promotion amongst Urban Poor (STEP-UP)
 Urban Wage Employment Programme (UWEP)
 Urban Community Development Network (UCDN)
 SJSRY has been Restructured in NULM.

National Urban livelihood Mission (NULM)

The National Urban livelihood Mission (NULM) implemented by the Ministry of Housing
and Urban Poverty Alleviation aims to reduce poverty and vulnerability of the urban
poor households by enabling them to access gainful self employment and skilled wage
employment opportunities, resulting in an appreciable improvement in their livelihoods
on a sustainable basis, through building strong grassroots level institutions of the poor.

The mission would aim at providing shelters equipped with essential services to the
urban homeless in a phased manner. In addition, the mission would also address
livelihood concerns of the urban street vendors by facilitating access to suitable spaces,
institutional credit, social security and skills to the urban street vendors for accessing
emerging market opportunities.

The strategy followed in NULM includes,

1. Building capacity of the urban poor, their institutions and the machinery involved
in the implementation of livelihoods development and poverty alleviation
programmes through handholding support
2. Enhancing and expanding existing livelihoods options of the urban poor;
3. Building skills to enable access to growing market-based job opportunities offered
by emerging urban economies;
4. Training for and support to the establishment of micro-enterprises by the urban
poor – self and group;
5. Ensure availability and access for the urban homeless population to permanent
24-hour shelters including the basic infrastructural facilities like water supply,
sanitation, safety and security;
6. Cater to the needs of especially vulnerable segments of the urban homeless like
the dependent children, aged disabled mentally and recovering patients etc., by
creating special sections within homeless shelters and provisioning special service
linkages for them;
7. To establish strong rights-based linkages with other programmes which cover the
right of the urban homeless to food, healthcare, education, etc. and ensure
access for homeless populations to various entitlements, including to social
security pensions, PDS, ICDS, feeding programmes, drinking water, sanitation,
identity, financial inclusion, school admission etc., and to affordable housing;
 8. To address livelihood concerns of the urban street vendors by facilitating access
to suitable spaces, institutional credit, social security and skills to the urban street
vendors for accessing emerging market opportunities.

Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) :

The Rajiv Awas Yojana envisages a “Slum Free India” with inclusive and equitable cities
in which every
citizen has access to basic civic infrastructure, social amenities and decent shelter.

The objectives of the programme are,

1. Improving and provisioning of housing, basic civic infrastructure and social

amenities in intervened slums.
2. Enabling reforms to address some of the causes leading to creation of slums.
3. Facilitating a supportive environment for expanding institutional credit
linkages for the urban poor.
4. Institutionalizing mechanisms for prevention of slums including creation of
affordable housing stock.
5. Strengthening institutional and human resource capacities at the Municipal,
City and State levels through comprehensive capacity building and strengthening
of resource networks.
6. Empowering community by ensuring their participation at every stage of
decision making through strengthening and nurturing Slum Dwellers’
Association/Federation.

THIRTEENTH CENTRAL FINANCE COMMISSION RECOMMENDATIONS

Recognizing the paramount importance of boosting the finances of Urban Local
Bodies(ULBs) and to bridge the gap between requirement of funds by the ULBs and
available financial resources, the Ministry of Urban Development impressed upon
the13th CFC Commission to play the role or a path breaker in creating an enabling
environment for fiscal decentralization at the sub-state level replace the system of
adhoc grants with regular transfers and compensate the third tier on the basis of a
realistic assessment of the costs involved The 10th, 11th and 12th Central Finance
Commissions had recommended ad hoc grants of Rupees 1000, 2000 and 5000 Crores
respectively.

1. Taking congnizance of the situation, the 13th Central Finance Commission has
emphasized the need to bolster the finances of local bodies and suggested that
local bodies need to be supported through a predictable and buoyant source of
revenue substantially higher than the present levels in addition to their own tax
revenues and other flows from State and Central Governments.
2. The various recommendations made by the13th Central Finance Commission seek
to provide quantum leap in the grants to the local bodies based on certain
 conditions which would ensure the adoption of best practices by local bodies and
bringing of the much needed reforms to these institutions.
3. The 13th Central Finance Commission has recommended total Grants-in-aid of
Rupees 23473 crores for period 2010-15 for ULBs which comes to Rupees
4694.51crores per annum.
4. Further,; with the objective of encouraging reforms and fast track planned
development of cities with focus on efficiency of urban infrastructure and service
delivery mechanisms as well as community participation, accountability of
ULBs/Parastatyal agencies towards citizens etc. and also as a means to enhance
transparency, the13th CFC has recommended ‘performance based grants’.
5. The performance based grants can be availed by adoption of various reforms like
accounting standards prescribed in the National Municipal Account Manual
(NMAM) by their local bodies, strengthen their local funds audit departments
through capacity building, incentivize revenue collection by local bodies, set up
ombudsman and property tax boards etc.The Ministry is undertaking initiatives to
assist the States in this regard to enable them to avail ‘Performance Based
Grants’.

The various programmes meant for removing urban poverty are grouped under three
categories:

1. Shelter and services: Shelter and services related programmes include provision
of housing, environmental improvement of slums, programmes concerned with
the welfare of children, women and youth.
2. Employment: employment related programmes concern with helping the urban
poor in self employment through providing credit and loans on concessional rates
and up- gradation of their skills.
3. Public distribution and nutrition: The urban poor get benefit from the Public
Distribution System which supplies certain essential goods like cereals, edible oils,
kerosene oil etc at retail prices.The general programmes of mid-day meal, special
nutrition programme and integrated child development services are also
expected to help urban poor.

However, we must note that most of these programmes expected to benefit the urban
poor are general in nature. There exist only a few programmes specifically meant for the
urban poor most of which are in the shelter sector. Further, most of these programmes
are at their experimental stage. They do not cover even a small fraction of the urban
poor. Many programs are floundering and some are already showing signs of
malfunctions.

On the whole the measure undertaken to deal with the problem of poverty in rural and
urban areas seems to be inadequate. No amount of efforts seems adequate.
The Challenges Ahead :

1. Poverty has certainly declined in India. But despite the progress, poverty
reduction remains India’s most compelling challenge. Wide disparities in poverty
are visible between rural and urban areas and among different states. Certain
social and economic groups are more vulnerable to poverty. Poverty reduction is
expected to make better progress in the next ten to fifteen years.
2. Poverty reduction would be possible mainly due to higher economic growth,
increasing stress on universal free elementary education, declining population
growth, increasing empowerment of the women and the economically weaker
sections of society. The official definition of poverty, however, captures only a
limited part of what poverty really means to people. It is about a minimum
subsistence level of living rather than a reasonable level of living. Many scholars
advocate that we must broaden the concept into human poverty.A large number
of people may have been able to feed themselves. But do they have education?
Or shelter? Or health care? Or job security? Or self confidence? Are they free
from caste and gender discrimination? Is the practice of child labour still
common?

Conclusion
Worldwide experience shows that with development the definition of what constitutes
poverty also changes. Eradication of poverty is always a moving target Hopefully we will
be able to provide the minimum necessary in terms of only income to all people by the
end of the next decade. But the target will move on for many of the bigger challenges
that still remain: providing health care, education and job security for all and achieving
gender equality and dignity for the poor. These will be even bigger tasks. We have
travelled about six decades since independence. The objective of all our policies had
been stated as promoting rapid and balanced economic development with equality and
social justice. Poverty alleviation has always been accepted as one of India’s main
challenges by the policy makers, regardless of which government was in power. The
absolute number of poor in the country has gone down and some states have less
proportion of poor than even the national average. Yet, critics point out that even
though vast resources have been allocated and spent, we are still far from reaching the
goal.

Poverty Analyzed
Having noted the root causes of poverty, we can say that the real constraints to growth
with equity are located primarily in the institutional or in the politico-economic sphere.
In an underdeveloped country like India where great mass of the people live in abject
poverty, a social welfare solution is not suitable. Eradication of the problem of massive
poverty is not possible within the four-walls of the prevailing social political and
economic order. In fact, this gigantic problem cannot be resolved without a
fundamental transformation of society itself which would involve redistribution of
wealth and equitable sharing of the growing prosperity and changes in the power
structure in favour of the poor.

1. Adoption of an essentially capitalist path of development has accentuated the

problem of poverty and the chasm between the rich and the poor. This trend has
to be reversed in favour of a truly socialist path of development
2. The country would have to give first priority to ending the system which has
generated inequality and mass poverty. In fact, we have to wage struggle against
socio-economic and political inequalities in order to alleviate the problem of
poverty.
3. Land should go to the tiller.
4. The pubic sector should be expanded rapidly and progressively to encompass the
whole economy with increasing participation of workers in management
5. Labour intensive programmes of development such as housing, irrigation and
communication should be given emphasis to remove the problem of
unemployment and underemployment Wages of workers also have to be raised
to improve their living conditions.
6. Equal access to essential social services like education and health should be
provided
7. Moreover, we have to put an end to the raising consumerist culture which has a
very damaging impact on the society as a whole. Both the rural and urban poor
have to organize themselves and fight for effecting such structural changes in
society.

SOCIAL INEQUALITY
In every society some people have a greater share of valued resources- money,
property, education, health and power – than others. According to Bourdieu, these
social resources can be divided into three forms of capital

1. Economic capital in the form the material assets and income,

2. Cultural capital such as educational qualifications and status, and
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 the other.

Some social inequality reflects innate differences between individuals for example, their
varying abilities and efforts.Someone maybe endowed with exceptional intelligencies or
talent, or may have worked very hard to achieve their wealth and status. However, by
and large, social inequality is not the outcome of innate or ‘natural’ differences between
people, but is produced by the society in which they live.

1. Social inequality is a characteristic of society, not simply a function of individual

differences.Social inequality is a society wide system that unequally distributes
social resources among categories of people. In the most technologically primitive
societies – hunting and gathering societies, for instance – little was produced so
only rudimentary social inequality. In more technologically advanced societies
 where people produce a surplus over and above their basic needs, however,
social resources are unequally distributed to various social categories regardless
of people’s innate individual abilities.
2. Social inequality is closely linked to the family and to the inheritance and social
resources from one generation to the next A person’s status is ascribed That is,
children assume the social positions of their parents. Within the caste system,
birth dictates occupational opportunities.A Dalit is likely to be confined to
traditional occupations such as agricultural labour, scavenging, or leather work,
with little chance of being able to get high-paying white collar or professional
work. The ascribed aspect of social inequality is reinforced by the practice of
endogamy. That is, marriage is usually restricted to members of the same caste,
ruling out the potential for blurring caste lines through inter-caste marriage.
3. Social inequality is supported by patterns of belief, or ideology. The caste system,
for example, is justified in terms of the opposition of purity and pollution, with
the Brahmins designated as the most superior and Dalits as the most inferior by
virtue of their birth and occupation. Not everyone, though, thinks of a system of
inequality as legitimate.Typically, people with the greatest social privileges
express the strongest support for systems of inequality such as caste and race.
Those who have experienced the exploitation and humiliation of being at the
bottom of the hierarchy are most likely to challenge it.

Side Effects of Social Inequality : Exclusion and Discrimination, Prejudices, Stereotype

Often we discuss social exclusion and discrimination as though they pertain to
differential economic
resources alone. This however is only partially true. People often face discrimination
and exclusion because of their gender, religion, ethnicity, language, caste and disability.
Thus women from a privileged background may face sexual harassment in public places.
A middle class professional from a minority religious or ethnic group may find it difficult
to get accommodation in a middle class colony even in a metropolitan city. People often
harbour prejudices about other social groups. Each of us grows up as a member of a
community from which we acquire ideas not just about our ‘community’, our ‘caste’ or
‘class’, our ‘gender’ but also about others. Often these ideas reflect prejudices.

Prejudices refer to pre-conceived opinions or attitudes held by members of one group

towards another. The word literally means ‘pre-judgment’, that is, an opinion formed in
advance of any familiarity with the subject, before considering any available evidence. A
prejudiced person’s pre-conceived views are often based an hearsay rather than on
direct evidence, and are resistant to change even in the face of new information.
Although the word is generally used for negative pre-judgements, it can also apply to
favourable pre-judgments. For example, a person may be prejudiced in favour of
members of his/her own caste or group and without any evidence believe them to be
superior to members of other castes or groups.

Stereotype : Prejudices are often grouped in stereotypes, fixed and inflexible

characterizations of a group of people. Stereotypes are often applied to ethnic and
racial groups and to women. In a country such as India, which was colonized for a
longtime, many of these stereotypes are partly colonial creations.Some communities
were characterized as ‘martial races’, some others as ‘effeminate or cowardly’, yet
others as ‘untrustworthy’. In both English and Indian fictional writings we often
encounter an entire group of people classified as ‘lazy’ or ‘cunning, it may indeed be
true that some individuals are some times lazy or cunning, brave or cowardly. But such a
general statement is true of individuals in every group. Even for such individual it is not
true all the time – the same individual may be both lazy and hardworking at different
times. Stereotypes fix whole groups into single, homogenous categories; they refuse to
recognize the variation across individuals and across contexts or across time. They treat
an entire community as though it were a single person with a single all encompassing
trait or characteristics.

Discrimination :
If prejudice describes attitudes and opinions, discrimination refers to actual behaviour
towards another group or individual. Discrimination can be seen in practices that
disqualify members of one group from opportunities open to others, as when a person
is refused a job because of their gender or religion. Discrimination can be very hard to
prove because it may not be open or explicitly stated Discriminatory behaviour or
practices may be presented as motivated by other, more justifiable, reasons rather than
prejudice. For example, the person who is refused a job because of their caste, may be
told that they were less qualified than others, and that the selection was done purely on
merit.

Social exclusion :

1. It 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 that prevent
individuals or groups from having opportunities open to the majority of the
population. In order to live a full and active life, individuals must not only be able
to feed, clothe and house themselves, but should also have access to essential
goods and services such as education, health, transportation, insurance, social
security, banking and even access to the police or judiciary. Social exclusion is not
accidental but systematic. It is the result of structural features of society-social
inequality.
2. It is important to note that social exclusion is involuntary, that is, exclusion is
practiced regardless of the wishes of those who are excluded For example, rich
people are never found sleeping on the pavements or under bridges like
thousand of homeless poor people in cities and towns. This does not mean that
the rich are being excluded from access to pavements and park benches, because
they could certainly gain access if they wanted to, but they choose not to. Social
exclusion is sometimes wrongly justified by the same logic – it is said that the
excluded group itself does not wish to participate.The truth of such an argument
is not obvious when exclusion is preventing access to something desirable (as
different from something clearly undesirable, like sleeping on the pavement).
 3. Prolonged experience of discriminatory or insulting behaviour often produces a
reaction on the part of the excluded who then stop trying for inclusion. For e.g.
example, ‘upper’ caste Hindu communities have often denied entry into temples
for the ‘lower’ castes and specially the Dalits. After decades of such treatment the
Dalits may build their own temple, or convert to another religion like Buddhism,
Christianity or Islam. After they do this, they may no longer desire to be included
in the Hindu temple or religious events. But this does not mean that social
exclusion is not being practiced The point is that the exclusion occurs regardless
of the wishes of the excluded
4. India like most societies has been marked by acute practices of social
discrimination and exclusion. At different periods of history protest movements
arose against caste, gender and religious discrimination. Yet prejudices remain
and often new ones emerge. Thus legislation alone is unable to transform society
or produce lasting social change. A constant social campaign to, awareness and
sensitivity is required to break them.

Deprivation :
Deprivation is the result of prolonged social inequality and poverty. Deprivation
means ‘felt loss’. It refers to certain deficiencies or deficits in the individual’s
environment which are felt and experienced by individual or groups to such an extent
that it hampers the individuals effective functioning.

1. Relative deprivation : It is a subjective concept It implies that an individual or a

group perceives themselves relatively deprived in relation to other individual
Poverty is seen in terms of relative to a class or section of population against
privileged ones. Poverty is perceived in terms of exclusion of a class or section of
population from average living patterns, activities, and participation in social life,
because of lack of resources, i.e., education or political power.
2. Absolute deprivation : It is an objective construct As a result of disadvantage in
society if an individual or a group is bereft of basic necessities for healthy living-
food housing, health facilities, education etc.- the resultant deprivation is
absolute deprivation.

Consequences of Deprivation

1. Social : Poverty, development of slum in cities, culture of poverty, low social

mobility, social inequality, discrimination, exclusion, etc.
2. Cultural : Low level of education, illiteracy, cultural lag, Crime and delinquency,
etc.
3. Economic : Poverty, unemployment, etc.
4. Physical : Malnutrition, diseases, hunger- death etc.

Violence against Women in India

Violence against women has been clearly defined as a form of discrimination in
numerous documents. The World Human Rights Conference in Vienna, first recognized
gender-based violence as a human rights violation in1993. In the same year, United
Nations declaration defined violence against women as “any act of gender-based
violence that result in, or is likely to result in, physical sexual or psychological harm or
suffering to a woman, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivations
of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life”.

It refers to ‘force’ whether overt or covert used to wrest from a women something that
she does not want to give of her own free will which causes her either physical injury or
emotional trauma or both. Liz Kelly has defined violence as “any physical visual verbal
or sexual act that is experienced by the woman or girl at the time or later as a threat,
invasion or assault, that has the effect of hurting or disregarding or removing the ability
to control one’s own behaviour or an interaction, whether this be within the workplace,
the home, on the streets or in any other area of the community”.

According to Gelles and Strauss, violence is an act carried out with the intention or
perceived intention of physically hurting another person. According to Schuler, gender
violence is defined as “any act involving use of force or coercion with intent of
perpetuating and promoting hierarchical gender relations”. Adding gender dimension to
that definition amplifies it to include violent acts perpetrated on women because they
are women. With this addition, the definition is no longer simple or obvious.
Understanding the phenomenon of gender violence requires an analysis of the patterns
of violence directed towards women and the underlying mechanisms that permit the
emergence and perpetuation of these patterns.

Three categories of Violence Against Woman :

Criminal violence Domestic violence Social violence

Dowry death
Wife- battering
Forcing wife
Sexual abuse by kins
Rape daughter-in- law to
Mai treatment of widows and
Abduction to go for female
elderly women.
Molestation foeticide.
Torture of daughter-in-law
Murder Eve-teasing
to commit sati,
Forcing a young widow
Refusing to give share to women in
property

Radhika Coomaraswamy identifies different kinds of violence against women, in the

United Nation s special report on Violence against Women :

1. Physical sexual and psychological violence occurring in the family including

battering, sexual abuse of female children in the household dowry related
 violence, marital rape, female genital mutilation and other traditional practices
harmful to women, non spousal violence and violence related to exploitation.
2. Physical sexual and psychological violence occurring within the general
community, including rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment and intimidation at
work, in educational institutions and elsewhere, trafficking in women and forced
prostitution.
3. Physical, sexual and psychological violence perpetrated or condoned by the state,
wherever it occurs. This definition added Violence perpetrated or condoned by
the state’, to the definition by United Nations in 1993. Margaret Schuler has
divided gender violence into four major categories:
4. Overt physical abuse (battering sexual assault, at home and in the workplace)
5. Psychological abuse (confinement, forced marriage)
6. Deprivation of resources for physical and psychological well being
(health/nutrition, education, means of livelihood)
7. Commodification of women (trafficking, prostitution).

Who are victims ?

On the basis of empirical study conducted on crime against women, Ram Ahuja
identifies four types of women.

1. Who suffer from devaluation, altruistic powerlessness, and feel helpless

depressed and poor self image.
2. Who live in stressful family situation-structurally incomplete, economically
insecure, morally deviant and functionally inadequate.
3. Who lack social-interpersonal relation and suffer from behavioral problems.
4. Whose husbands are either pathological personalities or are alcoholics.

Causal factors :

1. Social values.
2. Patriarchy.
3. Contradictions of change.
4. Role of Mass Media.
5. Political violence.
6. Situational Urge sometimes provokes a man to use violence e.g.-wife battering,
rape case etc.
7. Sometimes the victim provokes a person to use violence against her own
behaviour-which is often unconscious.
8. Intoxication too leads to violence i.e., some cases of violence occur when the
aggressors are wildly excited and belligerent state of mind-scarcely
comprehending of the likely fallout of their actions. For example, alcoholics rape.
According to Ram Ahuja in his study of relationship between alcoholism and
violence, found that wife battering was accompanied by the use of alcohol in 32%
of cases. Hibernian had found in 93% of cases,Wolfgang in 67% of cases. However
 we can not proud any proof. It may be ‘cooperative’ factor rather them the ‘chief
factor.
9. Violence is also motivated by persons altered view towards women, values,
patriarchy, and mass media, role conflict etc.
10.Personality traits also compel a person to indulge in violence. Violence prone
personalities are extremely suspicious, passionate, dominant, irrational immoral
jealous, possessive and unjust Experiences in early life affect behaviour in
adulthood According to Stewart, good number of aggressors and victims of child
abuse and familial violence, and exposure to violence as a child strongly influence
the probability of one being violent adult Violence against women is partly a
result of gender relations that assumes men to be superior to women. Given the
subordinate status of women, much of gender violence is considered normal and
enjoys social sanction.
11.According to Adriana manifestations of violence include physical aggression, such
as blows of varying intensity, burns, attempted hanging, sexual abuse and rape,
psychological violence through insults, humiliation, coercion, blackmail economic
or emotional threats, and control over speech and action. In extreme, but not
unknown cases, death is the result These expressions of violence take place in a
man woman relationship within the family state and society. Usually, domestic
aggression towards women and girls, due to various reasons remain hidden.
12.Cultural and social factors are interlinked with the propagation of violent
behaviour.With different processes of socialization that men and women
undergo, men take up stereotyped gender role of domination and control
whereas women take up that of submission, dependence and respect for
authority.
13.A female child grows up with a constant sense of being weak and in need of
protection, whether physical-social or economic.This helplessness has led to her
exploitation at almost every stage of life.
14.The family socializes its members to accept hierarchical relations expressed in
unequal division of labour between the sexes and power over the allocation of
resources. The family and its operational unit is where the child is exposed to
gender differences since birth, and in recent times even before birth, in the form
of sex-determination tests leading to foeticide and female infanticide. The home,
which is supposed to be the most secure place, is where women are most
exposed to violence.

Radhika Coomaraswamy points out that woman are vulnerable to various forms of
violent treatment for several reasons, all based on gender:

1. Because of being female, a woman is subject to rape, female circumcision/genital

mutilation, female infanticide and sex related crimes. This reason relates to
society’s construction of female sexuality and its role in social hierarchy.
2. Because of her relationship to man, a woman is vulnerable to domestic violence,
dowry murder, sati. This reason relates to society’s concept of a woman as a
property and dependent of the male protector, father, husband son, etc.
 3. Because of the social group to which she belongs, in times of war, riots, or ethnic,
caste, or class violence, a woman may be raped and brutalized as a means of
humiliating the community to which she belongs. This also relates to male
perception of female sexuality and women as the property of men. For example
reports of group rape from Somalia.

Combining these types of abuse with the concept of hierarchical gender relations, a
useful way to view gender violence is by identifying where the violence towards
women occurs. Essentially, violence happens in three contexts-the family, the
community and the state and at each point key special institutions fulfils critical and
interactive functions in defining legitimating and maintaining the violence :

1. The family socializes its members to accept hierarchical relations expressed in

unequal division of labour between the sexes and power over the allocation of
resources.
2. The community (i.e., social economic, religious and cultural institutions) provides
the mechanisms for perpetuating male control over women’s sexuality, mobility
and labour.
3. The state legitimizes the proprietary rights of men over women, providing a legal
basis to the family and the community to perpetuate these relations. The state
does this through the enactment of discriminatory application of the law.

Forms of violence against women

Rape, Sexual harassment and Abuse : Rape, sexual harassment eve teasing,
molestation and abuse of women by act as function of limiting women’s freedom and
perpetuate the nation women need male protection at various stages of life. These how
been case of gang rapes in colleges and incidents of acid throwing on young girl for
defacing them in several parts of India. Sexual harassment and abuse at the workplace is
least challenged or reported for fear of losing employment and stigmatization. It is futile
to argree that provocative dresses worn by women are responsible for sexual
harassment or molestation. In many cases Saree and salwar kameez clad women have
been sexually harassed It is scant regard for women which is responsible for sexual
harassment of women besides their being regarded as commodities with no feeling, to
be played with.

Rape is a violent sexual intercourse performed against the will and consent of the
women. It demonstrate a power relationship between men and woman. It diminishes
identity of women as an individual and objectifies her. In India every two hours, a rape
occurs. What is must frightening and disgusting about rape is that a large percentage of
these rape victims are children below the age of 12. Paradoxically in our society, the
victim of rape get stigmatized in the society.The woman who is the victim of rape is
blamed because the nation is that, “she must have invited it”.
Curative Measures

1. First, to meet the needs of protection, support and advice to the victims.
 Voluntary organization schemes.
 Financial support
 Short term accommodation to victims.
2. Assistance in finding employment and child care facilities and immediate financial
support.
3. Establishment of cheaper and less formal courts-courts to handle only female
cases. The scope of existing family courts should be enlarged to include all types
of domestic and non-domestic problems of women. Judges, magistrates and
lawyers with knowledge and interests in female matters should be appointed
4. Strengthening and increasing voluntary organization which could take up
individual women’s problems with their in laws, police, or the courts or the
concerned individuals. Voice of individual woman has less effect Voices of women
organized for a cause are more effective.
5. Publicity has to be given to those organizations which provide free legal aid to
women. So needy women can approach them.
6. Change in parent’s attitude-helping attitude towards daughters being victimized.

Caste Conflicts in India

Caste conflict refers to conflict between two castes or group of castes on specific issues.
In general it is side effect of the problem of casteism. Apart from casteism caste conflict
arises when,

1. One caste attempts to dominate over others,

2. When higher castes exploit the lower castes,
3. When castes perceive other castes as barriers in there mobility and in achieving
political power, and
4. When caste find that they are not able to share in the new economic
opportunities or acquire symbols of high status.

Sociologists like A. Beteille, M.N.Srinivas, A.R.Desai, Edmund Leach look into caste
conflict as lower caste attempt for social mobility. Conflict is the foundation to social
change.The reason for conflict is desire for space in social life by a group of people
which is challenged by another group. Though caste conflicts found more in the rural
areas but they take place in urban areas as welL A number of caste violence cases were
recently reported in the urban localities in Gujarat and Maharashtra. Caste violence
occurred mostly in the rural areas of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, and Bengal Some
politically motivated caste conflicts have been reported from Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan,
Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.
Causes of Caste conflicts (Few Case Studies)

1. Dominance of one caste over others

2. Exploitation of lower castes by upper castes
3. Barriers in mobility and achieving political power
4. Competition for economic opportunities and acquiring symbols of high status.
5. Dominance of one caste over others : The analysis of the exploitation of castes
by the locally dominant caste is crucial to the understanding of caste conflicts in
rural areas in India. Occasionally, a caste is dominant in a group of neighbouring
villages, if not in the district or the region. According to M.N. Srinivas a caste is
‘dominant’ when it preponderates numerically over the other castes, when it also
wields preponderant economic and political power, and when it enjoys a high
ritual status in the local caste hierarchy. The number of educated persons and the
nature of high occupations people in the caste are also two important elements
of dominance. When a caste enjoys all the elements of dominance, it may be said
to be dominant in a decisive way. But decisive dominance is not common. The
different elements of dominance are distributed among the castes in a village.
Thus, a caste which is ritually high may be poor and lacking strength in numbers,
while a numerically populous caste may be poor and ritually low. When a caste
enjoys one form of dominance, it is frequently able to acquire the other forms as
well in course of time.

However, this does not apply to untouchable castes. The castes whose members are
landless labourers, tenants, or very small landowners are many a time exploited by the
dominant castes.Sometimes the untouchables also decide to give up performing
services such as removing the dead animals from the houses of the higher castes,
beating drums at the festivals of village deities, and removing the leaf-plates on which
the high castes had dined during festivals and weddings. The upper caste people
become annoyed and beat up the untouchables and set fire to their huts.The attempt to
dominate and resistance to dominance, thus, lead to caste conflicts.

 Exploitation of lower castes by higher castes The attitude of the upper castes has
always been to consolidate and maintain their high social status.The intermediate
and lower castes feel deprived and exploited It is thus this attempt of ‘assertion’
of high caste people which creates caste conflicts. The best examples of these
caste conflicts due to exploitation, economic grievances and deprivation are
found in Bihar. Brahmins, Bhumihars, Rajputs and Kayasht has have always been
in conflict with upper backwards like Yadavs, Kurmis and Koeries, and lower
backwards like Dhanuk, Kumbhar, Lohar, Telli, Kahar, etc. Many caste carnages
had taken place in Bihar out of rivalry. The most brutal massacres in the last
fifteen years were; February 1992 massacre in Bara village, 40 kilometres from
Gaya in which forty-four upper caste Bhumihars persons of Savarna Liberation
Front were killed by1,500 backward caste MCC raiders. December 23,
1991carnage in which ten low caste members and supporters of Maoist
Communist Centre were killed by the upper caste SLF. Eight Harijans were burnt
alive by the Kurmis (rich landlords) in Belchi in May 1977; and in 1978 several
 landless agricultural labourers were burnt alive by the Kurmis in Bishrampur.
There is long list of such massacres.The growing escalation of caste-class tensions
in Bihar’s countryside is the result of emergence of private senas on caste-class
basis.

Some people describe these killings in Bihar in terms of agrarian unrest rather than
caste conflicts. But the evidence does not prove so since the upper caste persons killed
mostly the middle class peasants who on an average have only five big has of land The
upper castes are least interested in land reforms. They even sabotage schemes like the
Jawahar Rozgar Yojana which aims at helping the poorer sections. They also try to grab
the funds meant for distribution among the poor low caste people. There are upper
caste landlords who own up to1,000 acres of land. The Minimum Wages Act has also
been reduced to a farce. Serfdom continues asa well-established practice in most
regions of Bihar.Thousands of bonded labours continue to be exploited and are forced
to lead miserable lives.The efforts of some voluntary organizations are sabotaged by the
upper caste lords in collusion with the administrative officers.

The above description shows, that the exploitation of the backward castes by the upper
castes, the refusal of the backward castes to render any unpaid labour and sell their
products at reduced rates to landlords and money lenders, the demands of the lower
castes for occupancy rights over their land, stoppage of menial services and payment of
nazrana, etc., lead to violent reactions on the part of landlords and moneylenders
mostly belonging to upper castes and result in caste riots. The reprisals taken by the
landlords against the lower and backward castes are: to deprive them of their lands and
to turn them out of their houses on the ground that the houses belonged to the
landlords; refused to allow their cattle to use the ordinary grazing ground and to take
water at the ordinary drinking tanks; and complete social boycott (Jha). In these caste
conflicts, the backward casts and Harijans have moved towards the MCC and the
forward castes towards the SLF.

 Barriers in mobility and achieving political power : According to M.N. Srinivas

mobility of individual castes in local caste hierarchy has always been possible. The
potent sources of mobility are: the process of sanskritisation, gaining access to
some source of wealth, appealing to census officers to change the status of assets
in the decennial census, and mobilizing caste groups by forming caste
associations. Not only the members of the higher castes achieved political power
as the Marathas, Reddis, Nairs, Coorgs in South India claimed, Kshatriyas status
through ownership of land but even tribes and intermediate and low caste people
too, became politically powerful and claimed Kshatriya status. For example,
Yadavs Kurmis and Koeries in Bihar, Patidars in Gujarat, Pala in West Bengal and
Bhumij and Munda tribes in east India established their claims to be Kshatriyas.

According to Srinivas, many low and backward castes concentrated on acquiring the
symbols of high status that is, possession of political power, education, and a share in
the new economic opportunities. The high castes resented the appropriation of the
symbols of high rank by the low castes.They could no longer rely on the political
authority to punish those who dared to appropriate those symbols.They thought they
had the ‘moral authority’ of physically punishing and ostracizing the low caste people
attempting such appropriation. The newly established institution of decennial census in
1901came to the aid of ambitious low castes.They thought that by claiming the high
caste status in the records of census reports, no one would dispute their rank.

There was a widespread move among castes to assume new and high
soundingSanskritic names. Mythology, traditions and particular customs were also citied
in support of the claim to high rank. All this led in caste conflicts, because though
initially the aims of low castes were to inform caste customs and claim a high rank but
after independence, these castes became political pressure groups demanding electoral
tickets, ministership in the cabinets, jobs in administration. Caste conflicts in Gujarat,
Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh and in many states in 1970s,1980s
and 1990s were the result of these claims.

In short, the mobility course attempted by the low and backward castes as a means to
get rid of social and economic oppression and to as obtain their legitimate rights, has
always been resisted by the upper castes to protect their own vested interests.This
resistance attempt on the part of the upper castes and mobility movement on the part
of the lower castes leads to conflicts between them.

 Competition for economic opportunities and acquiring symbols of high

status: Though the status of each caste is fixed in the caste hierarchy but in the
absence of clear-cut hierarchy, vagueness characterizes the position of many
castes. In independent India, competition between different castes seems to be
the normal situation. With the passing of political power to the people, castes
have become pressure groups and are competing for power and using power to
benefit caste fellows. This tendency has increased caste conflicts in the
country.Sometimes the desire for successfully competing with other castes
compels small segments to unite and form a single caste category. As Andre
Beteille has pointed out, “Competition for power and office requires a certain
aggregation of segment as individually they cannot compete in the struggle for
power.” When they come together, they are regarded as powerful castes. The
example of Kolis in Gujarat and Yadavas in North India provide an instance of
coming together and forming a single caste category in order to strengthen their
political power.

What is important to remember in caste conflicts is that although numerical strength is

an important basis of power for a caste but what is more important is organization. In
this regard, people with some social and economic standing in the caste play a crucial
role.Small tenants and landless labourers have very little power. Far from being able to
maneuver for benefits and privileges, they are not even able to get what they are
entitled by law (Andre Beteille). Such people are sometimes lured by revolutionary
organizations to join them and fight for their rights and status.Caste carnages in states
like Bihar and Andhra Pradesh are the result of such efforts.
Different Views on Caste Conflict
According to Cultural Perspective (Dumont, Bougie, Coomaraswami), caste in India is a
hierarchical institution.Status of every caste is clearly spelled out So possibility of caste
conflict was historically absent in Indian society.

M.N.Srinivas Yogendra Singh contradicts this view of culturists and indicate how
Brahmins superior
position is challenged by Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Shudras by Buddhism, Jainism and
Sikhism, respectively Birth of these new religions has shown that how conflict influences
dynamism in orthogenetic culture of Indian society.

Intensity of caste-conflict increased during medieval period when lot many intermediary
caste received patronage from Mughak and subsequently going for secular mobility.
They claimed Kshatriya status. Upper castes questioned rise of new Kshatriyas who
refused to accept superiority of old Kshatriyas, leading to caste conflict

1. According to Andre Beteille, caste conflict had two different dimensions in India-
Inter caste conflict, Intra caste conflict The intensity of the two is variable in time
and space. According to Beteille, in the past caste conflict in India was identity
centric conflict Now it is slowly moving towards interest focused conflict
2. Stevenson in his study found that dalit community in South India evidently fought
against each other pertaining to right over ritual symbol putting turban on ritual
occasions and so on.
3. Oscar Louis in his study found that in Western UP, Jats sand Rajputs fought
against each other in search of superiority and dominance.
4. F.G Bailey in study of Bissipara found caste conflict between different caste group
in search of both ritual and secular superiority.
5. According to T.K. Oomen, in the decade of 60s and 7Os, caste association like All
India Kshatriya Mahasabha, Dalit Panther Party, Backward class mobilization in
South India largely comes into prominence. These associations make efforts to
promote vertical integration between sub-castes, contributing for
homogenization of people on the basis of supra-caste identity.Srinivas calk this as
Varnisation of caste in India.
6. Ghurye considers that consolidation of caste is offering justification to caste
conflict on one hand and on the other it is affecting to the process of national
integration.
7. According to S.C. Dube, green revolution and resultant economic affluence of
farmers in Western Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana gave rise to consolidation
of intermediary castes in North India. This consolidation of castes and their search
for power led to caste conflict in few cases. In the same manner, All India Agrawal
Mahasabha strengthened its organization and campaigned to show that it carries
capacity to resist violence from outsiders. Edmund Leach calls it as caste-grades
coming together and F.G. Bailey calls it as assimilation of caste clusters.
8. T.K. Oomen points out that caste conflict are nothing but lower caste search for
equality and higher caste challenge and protests to it When elements of justice,
 equality, democracy are injected in a traditional society people refuse to accept
old fashioned, exploitative laws. So people organize formally, claim new status
and involve in protest and conflict.

In contemporary times, caste and caste conflict is not having an organized

manifestation, the way it was present in the past However in everyday newspaper,
atrocities against Dalits, specifically against dalit women are reported.

Thorat in his study of violence against Dalits finds out that during the year 2001and
2002 found that

1. Atrocities against Dalits maximally reported in the states of Rajsthan, T.N, Uttar
Pradesh, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.
2. He finds out that economic conditions of these states are potentially different
However, Brahminic cultural ideology of superiority is equally present
3. He considers that the incidents of atrocities are neither reported by police nor
subjected to public scrutiny. This indicates that now in a democratic society like
India, dalits face isolation discrimination, segregation in India.
4. He suggests that now dalits are organizing protest taking the help of civil society
institutions. They are worrying least about money power, muscle power and
hegemonistic dominant caste. So Caste and caste conflict in India is a sub-altern
struggle for appropriate space in democratic India that was historically denied to
dalit community.

Sometimes caste and caste conflict is driven by political equation. This is discussed in
detail by Rudolph and Rudolph and Anand Chakravarti :

1. Rudolph and Rudolph consider it as a politics of bargaining, where each caste

empathized with immediate upper and immediate lower caste to constitute a
consolidation for political success, to gather strength to withstand violence of
others.
2. Anand Chakravarti in his study found that caste factions try to get support from
adjoining caste groups for political success or to resist domination or violence of
other castes.

Lastly it can be concluded that caste and caste conflict is still prevalent However nature,
form and genesis of caste and caste conflict have changed Presence of caste and caste
conflict is a testimony to the fact that there is a contrast between traditional cultural
perceptions and modern values of equality and justice.

CASTEISM
The caste system in its distorted form has given rise to the problem of casteism. It has
crept into every
sphere of our national life. As a result of casteism people have started to ignore the
interest of society.
According to Kaka Kalelker, “Casteism, therefore, is an overriding, blind and supreme
group loyalty that ignores the healthy social standards of justice, fair play, equity and
universal brotherhood”.

Casteism which exercises a negative influence on the network of social relations is

caused by several
factors of which the following may be noted:

Endogamous Nature of the Caste : Casteism is often the result of restrictions imposed
on the marriage that take place in the Hindu society. Each caste and sub-caste is
endogamous in nature. It means that members of a caste or sub-caste have to marry
within his or her own caste or sub-caste. Because of this rule of endogamy, marital
relations are confined to a small circle/section of the people. Individuals are more prone
to develop their loyalties and admiration to their own caste or sub-caste people. This
practice of endogamy makes the people to become somewhat narrow-minded.

Strong Desire of Enhancing Caste Prestige: People belonging to a particular caste or

sub-caste have the tendency of developing loyalty to their caste or sub-caste and to
become more conscious of its relative prestige in society. Every member thus tries his
level best to see that his caste prestige is safeguarded and enhanced This type of loyalty
towards the caste makes the members of the caste favour the members of the caste
wherever they get the opportunity. Excessive caste loyalty tends to keep other caste
people at a distance.

Improvement in the Means of Transport and Communication leading to a Better

Organization of Caste: Advancement that has taken place in the field of transport and
communication has helped the members of the caste to be in touch with one another
regularly. It has also helped them to strengthen their caste organization and conduct
activities on caste lines.Caste organization and caste get-together are on the increase.

Urbanization Indirectly Favouring Casteism: Industrialization and urbanization have

been attracting people in a large number towards cities. When the rural people go to
cities they naturally search for their nearer and dearer ones on the basis of their caste.
They consider their own caste people as their potential friends and well-wishers. Hence
the city atmosphere has also contributed to the strengthening of caste feeling and
caste- mindedness.

Powerful Hold of the Caste Over the member: Caste is a strong cohesive group. It has a
powerful hold over its members. Member of the caste also look to the caste of
obtaining the needed help and assistance in times of crises, difficulties and
emergencies. Dependence of the members on the caste in this way has further added to
the problem of casteism.

Consequences of Casteism Casteism, though has certain benefits to the members of the
caste on the individual basis; it has several harmful effects on the society as a
whole.Some of the major consequences of casteism can be noted here.
1. Hindrance to the Developments of National Feeling. Members of the caste
imbibed with the spirit of casteism are more prone to show their loyalty to the
caste rather than to the community at large. Casteism divides people in the name
of caste and encourages intolerance, jealousy, rivalry and conflicts among
members of the caste.Caste clashes and tensions that are in society for one
reason or another, ends unity of society and damages social harmony.
2. Dangerous to Democracy: Strictly speaking, caste and democracy cannot go
together. Caste is based on inequality, whereas democracy assures equality and
equal opportunities to one and alL Since democracy and caste system co-existing
in India, clashes between them are inevitable. Indian politics has become very
much complicated because of the caste interference. Caste plays its role in the
processes of selection of candidates to the election, formation of cabinet,
distribution of portfolios, and so on. It means at every stage in politics caste
creates tensions, misunderstandings, in fights, rivalries etc. It is in this way
national interests are undermined and national unity is underscored.
3. Encourages Moral Degeneration. Casteism contributes to the moral fall It
encourages nepotism. It makes one go out of the way to help and favour people
of one’s own caste. People of the same caste also look to the caste leaders to
favour them in the entire situation. This kind of favour damages the moral values
and encourages corruption.
4. Casteism Leads to the Negligence of Talents and Efficiency. If candidates are
selected and appointments are made on the basis of caste, it definitely damages
talents, abilities and efficiencies of the people. When unwanted and inefficient
people are selected for high offices in the name of caste, honesty, efficiency and
duty consciousness becomes the first casualty. It is clear from the above that
casteism has dangerous effects on the society. Though people know casteism is
bad they have become the victims of that Even those who condemn it in public
are privately stuck to it M.N. Srinivas has rightly said that the caste “is so tacitly
and so completely accepted by all including most vocal elements in condemning
it, that it is everywhere the unit of social action.” More than the common people,
politicians seem to be contributing much to the survival of casteism. “Political
leaders belonging to different castes seem to secure political and other
advantages for themselves at the expenses of other, and to this end they utilize
the caste sentiment Caste consciousness and caste prejudices which exist among
the masses are thus turned by politicians into caste passions.” One of the
seasonal politicians of India, Namboodiripad himself has stated, “The existence
of caste consciousness, caste prejudices, discontent on the basis of caste
inequalities, all these are impediments in the way of the development of the
country as a whole, and therefore, of the developments of ‘lower’ and ‘backward’
castes themselves”. Suggestions for solution of the problem of Casteism Casteism
is no doubt a social evil that has to be counteracted and removed Some have
even gone to the extent of telling that even caste system is to be wiped out But
removal of caste and casteism is not easy thing. Caste has very strong roots in our
social set up and hence it cannot be uprooted from our society. It is need of the
 hour that the ugly face of the caste, that is, casteism, should be wiped out We can
suggest some solutions in this regard to counteract the problem of casteism.
5. Education : Education seems to be the most ideal solution to the problem of
casteism. People must be properly educated about the dangers of practicing
casteism. Parents, teachers, elderly people, political leaders should take
precautions against contaminating the young minds with casteism.
6. Encouragement to Intercaste Marriages : Marital relations represent the most
intimate relations between men and women. Encouragement and promotion of
intercaste marriages will help young men and women of different caste to come
closer and to develop healthy relations among them.
7. Minimum use of the term ‘Caste’: Necessary precautions must be taken to see
that the word ‘caste’ is used only in limited context The young generations must
be encouraged to give the least importance to it. This is possible only when we
make lesser use of the term ‘caste’.
8. Promotion of economic equality: Wide economic gap is found between the
upper caste people and the lower caste people. This economic gap widens the
social distance and contributes to the development of caste prejudices. Hence,
efforts must be made to provide equal economic opportunities for the lower
caste people to attain economic prosperity.
9. In M.N.Srinivas opinion most of the shortcoming of the caste system can be
removed and the door opened to democratic equality through adult franchise,
five year plans, and the provision of education, constant progress of the backward
classes and the influence of the culture of higher caste on the living standards of
the lower castes.
10.According to Ghurye, the conflicts originated in casteism can be removed by
encouraging intercaste marriages. Co-education should be introduced at the
primary level and boys and girls should be given the opportunity to come
together. This will lead to improvements of the behaviour between different
sexes simultaneously with which casteism will be actively refuted Intercaste
marriage will be encouraged and the individuals marrying out of their own castes
will be instrumental in creating an atmosphere that will be fundamentally
opposed to casteism.
11.According to Mrs. Iravati Karve, in order to put an end to the conflict arising out
of casteism, it is necessary to create economic and cultural equality between the
castes.
12.According to Prabhu, the conflict created by casteism can be ended only when
the internal aspects of conduct are influenced For this it is necessary to try and
develop new attitudes in the people. The cinema can do much towards the
creation of these attitudes.
 Ethnic Conflicts, Communalism, Religious Revivalism
Defining Ethnicity :

1. Literally speaking, the word “ethnos” means nation, and the word ‘ethnicity’ is
developed from it. However, “ethnicity” is not defined as nationhood It is defined
as a collectivity of people of a distinct nature in terms of race, descent and
culture. Thus, an ethnic group is a social collectivity having certain shared
historicity and certain common attributes, such as race, tribe, language, religion,
dress, diet, etc. A combination of them in a group makes it an ethnic group, which
is perceived as such by its members and by members of other groups. One may
call this self-perception ethnic consciousness for status and for recognition as a
distinct social entity.
2. Ethnicity is not a static or pre-ordained category; it is a manifestation of the
common economic, political social and cultural interests and their protection by
certain members in a plural society. Thus, ethnicity, at times, is used as an
instrument of mobilization for realizing social economic and political goals.
Ethnicity is a cultural phenomenon, and as such no culture is “superior” or
“inferior”. Culture belongs to a people, and they endear it like any other people.
E. B. Tylor defines culture as “that complex whole which includes knowledge,
belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by
man as a member of society”. “Culture is the man-made part of the
environment”.
3. Therefore, all ethnic entities are cultural groupings, and therefore, they enjoy the
same position in terms of the normative orientations of different sets of people.
The Constitution in India declares sets of people. The Constitution of India
declares that India is a secular state in which distinctions and discriminations
based on caste, creed region, language, religion, etc., are not allowed The people
have been given ‘fundamental rights’ according to which, primordial or inscriptive
considerations do not find any place in modern India.

Ethnic Group :

1. An ethnic group may be defined as a distinct category of the population in a

larger society whose culture is usually different from that of the society. The
members of such a group are bound together by common ties of race or
nationality or culture. In other words, an ethnic group is a group of people having
common racial religious, linguistic or national characteristic.
2. An ethnic group may think that it is a living being of a unique kind Its members
generally think in terms of a real or factious commonality based on common
ancestral, cultural heritage, language, religion and even economic interests.
Internally, all ethnic groups are stratified despite their claim of commonality in all
respects. Ethnicity has become a very sensitive aspect of India’s social fabric,
resulting in ethnic cleavage, conflict, violence and hatred Are ethnic group’s
classes? Are they the same groupings as of caste groups? A plural or multi-ethnic
society like India would have an overlapping of ethnic, caste and class groupings.
 Continuality of these groupings is important to distinguish among ethnicity, caste
and class; as three bases of social ranking and identification.
3. A given country consists of various communities; and facts about their origin and
migration help understand the history of its civilization. The present population of
India is over 1250 million. About eighty years ago, Sir Herbert Risley noted that
there were 2378 main casts among the Hindus in India. Certainly, this number
must have reached over 3000 by this time due to the processes of fission and
social mobility. Marriage among different caste groups takes place in accordance
with the rules of caste endogamy, clan exogamy and avoidance of relations. in
father’s and mother’s sides. Besides these caste groups, there are other
communities, such as, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains and many tribal
groups, who limit marriage and social interaction to their own groups.

Nature of Ethnic Conflict :

At times, ethnic groups tend to operate as diametrically opposed groups due to a clash
of their real or supposed interests. Such a clash of interests may also take the form of
communalism.

1. Some groups may take undue advantage of their large numbers or of superior of
social origin to corner a major share of the national resources. The other
communities with smaller populations may feel deprived of what they feel are
their ‘legitimate claims’. Situations of mutual distrust disaffection and distance
may arise between various ethnic groups. Ethnic groups are called “primordial
collectivities”.
2. One perspective is that “relative deprivation” is the root cause of all ethnic strife.
3. The lacks of distributive justice, differential accessibility to resources and cultural
differences have been considered the main causes of ethnic problems.
4. Sometimes ethnic conflict is due to the distinction made between “outsiders”and
“insiders’. “We” (insiders) against ‘they” (outsiders) is an attitude found in all
societies. Immigrants are treated as ‘foreigners’.Such a problem arises when
Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Oriya, Hindi, Kashmiri, Punjabi, Urdu, Marathi and
Sindhi speaking people consider each other different in the national context
Members belonging to one state often consider members from other states as
outsiders. They would not like them to seek employment in their state.
5. Sub-regions, cities, towns and even villages are often used for drawing a line
between the insiders and the outsiders. The question is: can we call it ethnicity?
The answer is a clear no. India is a poly-ethnic society having distinctions based
on race, caste, language, religion and territory.

COMMUNALISM

1. The most striking feature of India’s current socio-political scenario is the

‘explosion’ of communalism in the face of new Economic policy and Globalization.
It is threatening the very social fabric of Indian society. Communalism is a highly
complex phenomenon in pluralistic India.The academics from different disciplines
 in vague, some based on certain static pre-conceived notions while others on the
basis of the ever changing sociopolitical dynamics. In some of these definitions
communalism has been explained as ‘above all an ideology’, to some others, ‘a
false consciousness’, ‘a struggle for scarce resources’, ‘competition for jobs’, ‘an
instrument of ruling class politics’ and so on. On the basis of its highly intolerant
anti-democratic nature, it is also seen as a precursor to fascism.
2. Among the plethora of definitions, W .C. Smith’s (1979) definitions presents a
fairly generalized and popularly accepted scenario. “Communalism is that
ideology which has emphasized as the social, political and economic unit of the
group of adherents of each religion, and has emphasized the distinction, even
antagonism, between such groups.” Communalism can be said to have had more
than a hundred years old history, affecting aspects of the socio-cultural and
political life of India in myriad ways. During certain times, it lays dormant, while
being potentially explosive. Bipin Chandra (1987) in his acclaimed work on
Communalism argued that, “Communalism was the false consciousness of the
historical processes of the last one hundred fifty years, because, objectively no
real conflict between the interests of Hindus and Muslims existed”. It was a false
view of history.He further argues that “Communalism was an expression of and
deeply rooted in the interests, aspirations, outlook, attitudes, psychology and
point of view of the middle classes in a social situation characterized by economic
stagnation and the absence of vigorous struggle to transform society-the
communal question was petty bourgeois question par excellence ‘.
3. K.N. Pannikkar said that “communalism is a state of consciousness … which
primarily draws upon certain assumptions of distinct cultural identity for
members professing the same religion”.
4. Gyanendra Pandey suggested that “communalism is a form of Colonialist
knowledge, which in its Indian usage, means a condition of suspicion, fear and
hostility between members of different religious communities”
5. All these definitions broadly touch upon the antagonistic relationship whether
“imagined” or real between the two major religious communities such as Hindu-
Muslim, Hindu-Christian, Hindu-Sikh, Muslim-Sikh relations.

COMMUNAL VIOLENCE

1. Violence between religious communities in the form of riots, pogroms or

terrorism draws our attention in a dramatic manner but the underlying and long
term cause of this violence is the spread of communalism. As Bipin Chandra
remarks, while the communal riots give credibility to the basic communal
ideological precepts among the ordinary people and enlist further support for
communal politicians, it is communal ideology and politics, which the communal
politicians and ideologues preach in normal times, which form the real basis on
which communal tensions and violence occur. In other words, communal ideology
and politics are the disease, communal violence only it’s external symptom.
“Communal riots and other forms of communal violence are only a concrete
conjunctural manifestation of the communalization of society and politics.
 Communal ideology leads to communal politics and psychology differentiation,
distance and competition along religious lines” (Chandra).
2. Communalism and communal violence are the products of the overall social
economic and political situation of the society. Communal violence has been, by
and large, an urban phenomenon where the deprived and poor people have been
involved But more than religion, it is communal propaganda; rumour mongering
and communal mobilization have been responsible. Any type of violence and
lawlessness provides an opportunity to the interested people to indulge in loot
and plunder largely for economic reasons. But the recent happenings (of 2002) in
Gujarat have shaken all the sensible, justice loving, democratic and secular people
of the country. The involvement of the state in a communal violence has never
been so blatant and naked It was virtually a state-sponsored violence against the
minority community as brought out by several citizens organizations and forums.
Some of these reports even described it as ‘ethnic cleansing’ done under state
supervision. Significantly, the dirty work of violence is left to a certain type of
communalized militant youth especially belonging to the dalit and backward
castes, and sometimes to the tribal groups, while the ideological work evolves
with great subtlety. This may be an intelligent tactic on the part of communal
leadership to divert the attention of the traditionally deprived sections from their
problems. It may also be a ploy of blocking the deprived sections of the society
from finding a rightful place in the power structure which till now has been tightly
held by the upper social strata.
3. But in the Gujarat carnage the involvement of the upward mobile, prosperous
middle class in loot and plunder is a phenomenon that required an urgent
analysis by the sociologists. Indian State was conceived in a secular, non-
communal manner. In the secular-democratic state an important rule was
assigned to politics and the political parties. Unfortunately elections in
independent India became ends in themselves and narrow self and political
interests rather than larger national interests became more important In this
scenario, the communal implications of the numbers game in a pluralistic society
became apparent The political parties conceive of their interests in terms of caste
and religion.
4. “Such an ethnic orientation of the numbers game has two prominent features.
One is the rise of new political organizations that are sometimes blatantly and
sometimes not so blatantly communal This happens on the local levels or starts at
that levels and then moves up” (Rajni Kothari, 1998).Shiv Sena is a blatant
example of this but there are many others too. The capture of political
organizations by cultural and sectarian organizations is also a case in point What
starts as non-political organizations take on political roles. Rajni Kothari gives the
example of R.S.S.and Jamat-e-Islami of this phenomenon or process. Such
organizations declare that they have nothing to do with politics but they go on
spreading their tentacles. So that, in course of time, political organizations like
parties, trade unions and professional associations like those of students and
teachers even women’s organizations, become increasingly dependent on
sectarian and communal organizations which are not opposed to be political
Measures to Contain Ethnic and Communal Violence :

1. If the surging tide of communalism is not reversed it will swamp the country.
Before independence, it was easy to argue that communal violence was the result
of the British policy of divide and rule. Now the reality is more complex. Religion
has come to be politicized and politics has come to be criminalized Unless all
communities consider themselves a part of one nation, the containing of
communal disharmony will remain difficult.
2. A country that prides itself on the secular character of its policies has to be wary
of politicians who speak only for their own religious community. It has to expose
and alienate the bureaucrats who consider secularism only as a theoretical
possibility.The police can no longer afford to allow communal issue to foster in
the manner that it has. Initiating the process of decommunalizing the people at all
levels, say, by bringing home to them that communal assumptions are false, by
explaining to them the socio-economic and political roots of communalism.
3. Communalization of the state and of the political elite in power has to be checked
because it leads to inaction against communal violence, and covert or overt
political and ideological support to communalism by the state apparatuses,
including the media under state control.
4. The communalization of civil society also needs to be checked because it leads to
more communal riots and other forms of communal violence. People with
communal ideas and ideologies pressurize the government to act in a manner
which is always against the principles of secularism. The secular state, the secular
party in power and the secular power elite many a time succumb to the pressures
of these communal people. It is here that intellectuals, political parties and
voluntary organizations can be most effective.
5. The role of education, particularly emphasizing value-oriented education both in
schools and colleges/ universities, is important in preventing communal feelings.
Education based on new cultural ideologies can protect the young people against
philosophies and ideologies of hate. Particularly harmful in the Indian context has
been the role of teaching of history. Communal interpretation of history,
especially of the medieval period forms the bedrock of communal ideology in
India. Teaching of history along scientific lines in educational institutions has to be
a basic element in any ideological struggle against communalism.
6. The media can also prove to be significantly useful in preventing communal
feelings. Communal press can be banned the legal action can be taken against
communal writers. The ideology that economic development, industrialization,
growth of capitalism and the growth of the working class would automatically
weaken and ultimately eliminate communalism should not be overplayed This
economic reductionist approach of the left parties and organization like Naxalite
only increases communal poison. It is not being suggested that modern economic
development is not needed in our society. What is being pointed out is that
economic development alone cannot contain communalism. It is not class
struggle which increases communalism but communalism surely hampers class
unity. Communal violence is more prevalent in developed states like
 Maharashtra, Punjab and Gujarat and in developed cities like Mumbai,
Ahmadabad Jamshedpur and Kanpur.
7. Peace Committees can be set up in which individuals belonging to different
religious communities can work together to spread good will and fellow-feeling
and remove feelings of fear and hatred in the riot-affected areas. This will be
effective not only in diffusing communal tensions but also in preventing riots from
breaking out.
8. The state has to plan and use new strategies in dealing with communal violence.
India’s experience in recent years confirms the utility of this step.Whenever
strong and secular administrators have used or threatened the use of strong
steps, riots either did not occur or were of short duration. For example, strong
police and army intervention prevented repetition of riots in Calcutta in
November 1984 and in Mumbai in January 1994. When the anti-social elements
and religious fanatics and people with vested interests realize that the
government is not partial and the police are serious in putting down communal
violence with all the force at its command, they immediately cease spreading
communal frenzy.
9. This also calls for non-communalizing law-enforcement agencies.The role of
media is immensely heightened during the course of communal violence.
Newspapers can pour oil over the troubled waters or extinguish the raging fire.
The fear and hatred can be checked if the press, radio and TV report events in a
way conductive to soothing the frayed nerves of people instead of inflaming the
temper further.The media can contradict rumours in a sober manner. A careful
restraint has to be exercised in reporting the number of persons of different
religious communities killed or injured.
10.The government in power has to treat the extremist communal outfits as its
immediate targets and cripple their capacity to disrupt law and order. The
secessionists in Kashmir, the militants in Punjab, and other extremist
organizations of Hindu, Muslim and Sikh communalism have to be dealt with by
the state through its law and order machinery. The small insecure communities
always look to government or move towards communal parties for
protection.The communalism of the 1980s and 90s has placed a clear
responsibility at the doors of the secular state squarely to confront the communal
elements who have emerged as merchants of death.
11.Today, communalism is on the march and secularism is on the regret, and the
state is on the defensive.The state was on the defensive in post-Blue Star
Operation phase, on the retreat on Shah Bano case, and under siege on Mandir-
Masjid issue in Ayodhya in 1992 and Hazratbal siege in November 1993 and in
Charar-e-Shrief shrine siege in May 1995 in Kashmir and Gujarat riots in 2002. In
all these situations, Sikh, Muslim, and Hindu communalists were on the offensive.
The challenge of Hindu, Muslim and Sikh communalism has to be met by the
Indian State at political and ideological levels both with short term and long-term
strategies.
12.The government is also facing the problem of the emergence of religion-based
politics as a central factor in public affairs and elections, although election results
 in several states in the last five-six years have proved that the people have
rejected such policies. Apart from these measures, it is necessary to look at the
real problems of the religious minorities in terms of employment, literacy and
getting them a fair share of representation in every field Efforts are needed for
the development of the minority communities and removing their mass illiteracy
and unemployment Secular structures have to be promoted and preserved
Vigorous attacks need to be launched on religious institutions which foster
communalism. Suspicions between communities must be rigorously weeded out
A common civil code in the country is the need of the day.There should be no
special laws for specific communities and so special status for any state. The
reservation policy has to be reconsidered Political manipulation has to be tackled
Politicians interfering with police functioning and disallowing arrests of trouble
makers have to be severely dealt with. Public opinion and mass enlightenment
have to be brought about to make secular values functional.

Along with these measures other measures that should be undertaken by the
government to contain communal violence are :

1. Posting of secular-minded police officials in riot-prone areas.

2. Setting up of special courts to try communal offences.
3. Providing immediate relief and adequate financial assistance to victims of
communal riots for their rehabilitation.
4. Taking severe action against all those who incite communal tensions or take part
in violence.

Thus, multipronged measures are needed to contain communal tensions and bring
about communal harmony in the country. We have not only to fight religious
communalism but have also to contain political communalism which is more degrading
and dangerous. A vast majority of Muslims and Sikhs in India have no appetite for
communal violence, and this is also true of the sentiments of most Hindus. The
members of the Muslim and Sikh communities are convinced that the growing
communal tension can be stopped if politicians are somehow prevented from exploiting
people for their narrow ends. The Muslim on the street is slowly recognizing the
exploitative intentions of politicians. Religious sloganeering does not affect him so much
now. He no longer harbours a sneaking desire to seek economic redress across the
border. He feels far more secure here.

RELIGIOUS REVIVALISM

1. In modern society religion is a fantasy for someone and for others it is an artistic
delight sometimes for others it is a ray of hope, still for others it’s a proof of
personal decision, for many others its respect for self and society. In modern
society religion is not man’s unquestionable faith in god rather it’s a form of
experience that offers a man guidelines for self-conduct.
2. RELIGIOUS REVIVALISM in India can be understood on demand supply
phenomena. Though India glorifies secularism, importance of religion has
 increased manifold in personal life of people.As a result new sects and cults have
emerged Leaders of these sects and cults aggressively campaign their religion
using different means. They lure customers and ensure their importance in the
market of religion where supply is very low as compared to demand Ashish Nandy
writes that this is the region why sadhus are not successful in India and successful
in West.
3. The theory of religious revivalism in contemporary times is spelled out by
Campbella who introduces two concepts, Endomorph and sociomorph, indicating
that religious revivalism is greatly dependent on childs psychic adoptability to
immediate institution like family and community. A child who fails to adjust
commands and demands of these institutions in early childhood stage, do have a
tendency to stand more committed to religion. A child who suffers from
maladjustment lives in his own world develop his independent views to the
existential values, ultimately constitute his own culture, get number of supports
and reinforces religion in a society that was one’s secular.
4. He further asserts that religious revivalism is greatly a response to threat to ones
family and community or even larger society of which he is a part In a multi-
cultural society growing cultural hostility when experienced by child during his
childhood or early adulthood he becomes more possessive about religion. So
while holding secular position he is bound to reinforce activities endorsed by
religion. This idea can largely be applied to Indian society, where common
experience shared by children in childhood intensify their association with
religion. Hence many educated youth in support of their religion don’t hesitate to
take militant action, even though they have to sacrifice their life for it All these
illustrations sufficiently imply that religion is making appearance in a big way in
the life histories of the societies. Communist Russia has broken on the basis of
religion, America is emerging as a risk society living under the threat of religious
terrorism. New Age religions are mushrooming in less populous highly developed
Scandinavian countries. Every year hundreds of communal conflicts take place in
India.
5. These incidents sufficiently indicates that in a country like India, religious
revivalism is a challenge to modernization and social transformation.
Commenting on it Bainbridge advocates that the conventional theory of
modernity speaking out secularization and happiness has found out no place in
present empirical world So role of region in human society is not predictable, it is
dynamic and variable. One is not always secular because it is not a rule of law. It’s
a creative act and its discourses are only by the creative mind of the artists. The
people who are secular at one point of time are outnumbered by people those
who want religious revivalism. Thus we live in a paradoxical time, whether like it
or dislike, we are bound to be affected by religious revivalism, directly or
indirectly.
 Illiteracy and Disparities in Education

India has made steady progress since gaining its Independence in 1947.

1. The 2011census illustrated a literacy rate increase from 18.33% in 1951to 74.4%
in 2011
2. Number of Indians that can read and write now stands at 778.45 million
3. Number of illiterates has dropped from 304.15 million in 2001 to 272.95 million in
2011
4. Most increasing trend is narrowing down of the gender gap in education
5. Male literacy rate has increased to 82.14% while the female literacy rate has
increased to 65.46%
6. Male- Female literacy gap has reduced from 21.59% in 2001 to 16.68% in 2011

Country Objectives for 2012/2015/2017

1. Enable neo-literate* adults to continue learning

2. Begin skill development programmes to improve earning and learning conditions
3. Promote a learning society by providing opportunities for neo-literate adults to
continue their education

*A neo-literate is an individual who has completed a basic literacy training program and
has demonstrated the ability and willingness to continue to learn on their own using the
skills and knowledge attained without the direct guidance of a literacy teacher.

Problems that are affecting access to education

1. Gender disparities
2. Regional disparities
3. Social disparities

Current Literacy Initiatives

1. Saakshar Bharat is a revised version of the National Literacy Mission implemented

by the Prime Minister of India to create an increasingly literate society. At
independence, 86% of the India’s population was illiterate. Contributing factors
were put down to wide gender, social and regional disparities.
2. The Literacy Initiative launched in 2009 introduced a number of teaching and
learning programs that had a set focus on increasing literacy delivery standards
for women. The government identified that women were the ‘force multiplier-
the key program instrument to creating a better society. By the emancipating and
empowering Indian women, improvement would be seen across school
education, skill development, and health. These were said to be otherwise
impeded by female illiteracy.
 3. The program is capable of increasing rural female literacy and reducing the
gender gap in literacy for non and neo-literate adults and youth living in rural
areas. The program aims to further promote and strengthen adult education, with
a primary focus on women, by extending education options to those adults who
have not had the opportunity to gain an education previously.

Strategy
Comprehensive programs focusing on post-literacy and continuing education will be
provided for neoliterates and youth who have received primary education and need to
upgrade their literacy skills to harness improvement of their living and working
condition.

Four key objectives :

1. Impart functional literacy and numeracy to non-literate and non numerate adults
2. Enable the neo-literate adults to continue their learning beyond basic literacy and
acquire equivalency to formal education system
3. Impart non and neo-literates relevant skill development programmes to improve
their earning and living conditions
4. Promote a learning society by providing opportunities to neo-literate adults for
continuing education

The government seeks to achieve an 80% literacy rate by 2012, and reduce the gender
gap in literacy by 10%. A specific focus will be targeted on castes, tribes, minorities and
disadvantaged groups. With 84% of the Indian illiterate population living in rural areas,
the program will be implemented across eligible rural districts. Adult education centres
have been proposed to be set up to coordinate and manage the programs.

To respond to the demand for literacy and address the need of non and neo-literate
adults a number of teaching and learning programs will be implemented These
programs will include functional literacy, basic education, vocational educational, and
continuing education programs. Due to various social and economic problems India’s
education programme continues to be undercut

1. Of the biggest victims of the educational system are those living in rural areas.
2. The attitudes of the children and teachers also affect the quality of the schools.
3. Allocation of government funds and the conditions of the destitute rural schools
contribute to the low quality of education by rural children.
4. While there are many rural areas in school systems which are operating in poor
conditions there is one in particular whose schools outperform most other rural
schools and also those located in urban areas of India. Kerala, a rural state of
India remains a puzzle to many educators. Its illiteracy rate does not follow the
trend of most rural schools.
5. Many children living in rural areas receive a level of education which is very poor.
6. Overall enrolment in primary and middle schools are very low.
 7. Fifty per cent of children living in these areas leave school before the fifth grade.
These children leave school for variety of reasons: most leave so that they can
work in the fields, where the hours are long and the pay is low.
8. A large per cent of the dropouts are females. Forced by their parents, most girls
perform household chores and help the family at home. These are some of the
reasons why sixty per cent of all females in India are illiterate, a figure much
higher than those of males.
9. As these children grow into adults, many are still illiterate by the age of forty.
These uneducated adults are also reluctant to send their own children to school
because of their failure in the education system. This in turn creates a problem
for the next generation.
10.The children living in rural areas continue to be deprived of a quality education,
part of the reason is, due to their teachers.A large number of teachers refuse to
teach in rural areas and those that do are usually under qualified
11.In recent years the number of qualified teachers has increased because of
increased efforts by the government and private groups to improve the general
education and professional training of teacher. There is need of an emphasis on
the training of rural teachers, whose educational background is generally not as
sound as their urban counterparts.
12.Those that refuse to teach in rural areas cite distance and lack of interest by
students as problems. Many of the teachers also lack the enthusiasm to teach
because of their meager salary-less than one hundred dollars per months.
13.Another obstacle faced by the schools is that obtaining more teachers for rural
schools is difficult because of state guidelines that approve of high student- to-
teacher ratios.’
14.As the lack of teachers creates many obstacles for children in rural schools,
another setback is the lack of resources which becomes detrimental to the
learning process.
15.Lack of books and other reading materials seem to be a widespread problem. The
use of high-tech devices such as computers is very rare.
16.Condition of the schools, the inadequate facilities in the classes is other obstacles.
Some schools are located in warehouses while others in small houses. Many of
the rural schools operate without electricity.
17.While many rural schools search for the proper resources, the distribution of
government funds is major hindrance to the educational system.
18.According to a recent study done by the World Bank, thirty per cent of the total
educational funding goes toward higher educational institutions.This is an
important issue because the number of students enrolled in these types of
institutions represents such a small per cent of India s students.

The disadvantaged people (i.e., SCs, STs, OBCs, women, and religious minorities) in our
society have been terribly exploited because of their illiteracy. Some studies have been
conducted on descriptions of disparity in education as evidenced in regional rural-
urban, sex, and caste disparities and imbalances in enrolment and retention at school or
college and the consequences of disparities.All these studies have pointed out the
impact of education on the status and the identity of the disadvantaged people.
Studies on SCs and STs have indicated that so long these people remain educationally
backward; they have to be provided protective discrimination in the form of economic
support or reserved admissions to institutions of higher education.

One such study was sponsored by the ICSSR in 1974 under the coordination of I.P. Desai.
It covered 14 states and was concerned with the situation and problems of SC ad ST
school and college students in the country. This study pointing out apathy of ST students
to education, indicated that illiteracy increases inequality and prevents occupational as
well as social mobility.

Victor D’Souza traced the pattern of disparity between the education of the SCs and the
others in Punjab and pointed out how the structure of caste system, caste behaviour,
economic factors and the form and operation of welfare programmes influence the
pattern.

V.P. Shah pointed out relationship between education and untouchability in Gujarat

1. Sachchidananda Sinha has described the situation of SC students of colleges in

Uttar Pradesh. All these studies, thus, throw light on education as an instrument
of equality for SCs and STs. Similarly, there have been studies on women too,
another important category of those who are educationally disadvantaged and
backward
2. K. Ahmad and others in terms of significance of education to their role in a
developing society. Baker studied the aspirations of female students with a view
to understanding the problems they encounter in making use of educational
facilities. Chitnis studied the impact of co-education on Muslim women students
in Bombay. All these studies point out the consequences of inequalities and the
need for change.
3. Education acts as a refuge in adversity. It empowers the people. It is the tool that
breaks the chains that resist a nation’s development If the growth of a nation is to
be people-centric, and if development is to be whole, then the people must be
empowered and stimulated through education.
4. Lack of education has resulted in growth of unemployment, poverty and a
substantial increase in the rate of growth of population. Most of the voters are
illiterate; votes of the illiterate people do affect the election process in a major
way. Mostly votes are influenced by factors such as religion and caste of the
candidates.
5. Illiteracy has proven to be a major handicap. It has affected various sectors that
determine India’s growth. The educational system itself operates on nepotism
and corruption. The whole system is based on rote learning, the curriculum is
rarely updated and teachers in rural schools lack necessary qualifications and
knowledge required for their jobs. Most of the people in rural areas live below
the poverty line, and thus can’t afford to educate their children.The funds that
the Government provides for the same, get exhausted before reaching the right
people, and, lie in the pockets of corrupt officers.
 6. Education is related to equality of opportunity.This is perceived on the basis of
the findings of one empirical study conducted in eight states in1967 on the social
background of students (age, sex, caste, father’s occupation, father’s education,
etc.) studying at various levels – high school college and professional colleges.
This study presented two possible propositions :
7. Education is a priority with those in the white- collar group, and children in this
group use educational facilities more than other groups; and Education is
differentially available to those who do not belong to white collar group If the
first proposition is correct, it probably underlines the irrelevance of education to
non white collar groups in our society.Their lack of interest in secondary
education arises out of the fact that for the occupations they aspire to, secondary
education makes no meaningful contribution. This throws light on the defective
planning of our education and the ‘backwardness’ of the underprivileged groups.

Some suggestions to tackle illiteracy and disparities in education :

1. Make education till Standard XII mandatory for all, and free of cost in rural areas.
2. Grant 100% tax exemption to all educational institutions as well as on
expenditure on education of children.
3. Create separate educational funds by levying 2% tax on annual income of all tax
payers.
4. Increase government funding for education. At least 20% of the annual budget
must be used for the same.
5. Define educational qualifications for eligibility for the post of the Education
Minister as well as minimum educational qualifications for teachers in all
institutions.
6. Provide concession on necessities like land, electricity, etc., that are required for
setting up educational institutions.
7. Provide free education, in all government institutions, for citizens living below the
poverty line.
8. Launch free-to-air educational channels to educate the masses.
9. Provide suitable economic compensation/relief to parents whose children are
earning members of their families, to encourage the children to study.
10.Provide good salary packages of government employed teachers and salary
subsidies for private school teachers, to raise their living standards.
11.Set up a grievance cell to sort all problems of the Educational system, headed by
the retired Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India and assisted by a council of
eminent people from various fields, having the status of state ministers of a
cabinet
12.Establish institutions for the mentally/physically challenged people, so that they
can obtain free education.
13.Make adult education mandatory and free of cost for all illiterate adults.
Breaking all barriers: Education to all

1. The role of Universal Elementary Education (UEE) for strengthening the social
fabric of democracy through provision of equal opportunities to all has been
accepted since the inception of our Republic. Over the years, India initiated a
wide range of programmes for achieving the goal of UEE through several
schematic and programme interventions, such as Operation Black Board, Shiksha
Karmi Project, Lok Jumbish Programme, Mahila Samakhya, District Primary
Education Programme etc. Currently, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is implemented
as India’s main programme for universalising elementary education. Its overall
goals include universal access and retention, bridging of gender and social
category gaps in education and enhancement of learning levels of children. SSA
provides for a variety of interventions, including inter alia, opening of new schools
and alternate schooling facilities, construction of schools and additional
provisioning for teachers, periodic teacher training and academic resource
support, textbooks and support for learning achievement.
2. These provisions need to be aligned with the legally mandated norms and
standards and free entitlements mandated by the RTE Act SSA is being
implemented in partnership with State Governments to cover the entire country
and address the needs of 192 million children in 1.1 million habitations.
3. The Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, 2002 inserted Article 21-A in the
Constitution of India to provide free and compulsory education of all children in
the age group of six to fourteen years as a Fundamental Right in such a manner as
the State may, by law, determine. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory
Education (RTE) Act, 2009, which represents the consequential legislation
envisaged under Article 21-A, means that every child has a right to full time
elementary education of satisfactory and equitable quality in a formal school
which satisfies certain essential norms and standards.
4. Article 21-A and the RTE Act came into effect on 1 April 2010. The title of the RTE
Act incorporates the words Tree and compulsory’.‘Free education’ means that no
child, other than a child who has been admitted by his or her parents to a school
which is not supported by the appropriate Government, shall be liable to pay any
kind of fee or charges or expenses which may prevent him or her from pursuing
and completing elementary education. ‘Compulsory education’ casts an
obligation on the appropriate Government and local authorities to provide and
ensure admission, attendance and completion of elementary education by all
children in the 6- 14 age group. With this, India has moved forward to a rights
based framework that casts a legal obligation on the Central and State.
5. Governments to implement this fundamental child right as enshrined in the
Article 21A of the Constitution, in accordance with the provisions of the RTE Act
The SSA has been operational since 2000-2001to provide for a variety of
interventions for universal access and retention, bridging of gender and social
category gaps in elementary education and improving the quality of learning. SSA
seeks to provide quality elementary education including life skills. SSA has a
special focus on girl’s education and children with special needs. SSA also seeks to
 provide computer education to bridge the digital divide. With the passage of the
RTE Act, changes have been incorporated into the SSA approach, strategies and
norms. Elementary Education sector is experiencing the drive for Quality
improvement under SSA by aligning it with the provisions of RTE Act.
6. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) framework of implementation and norms for
interventions have been revised to correspond with the provisions of the RTE Act
This includes interventions, inter alia for i.e.
 Opening new primary and upper primary schools as per the neighbourhood
norms notified by State Governments in the RTE Rules, and to expand existing
infrastructure(additional classrooms, toilets, drinking water facilities) and provide
maintenance grants and school improvement grants.
 Support for residential schools for children in areas which are sparsely populated
or hilly or densely forested with difficult terrain, and for urban deprived homeless
and street children in difficult circumstances,
 Special training for admission of out-of-school children in age appropriate classes,
 Additional teachers as per norms specified in the RTE Act, and provide extensive
training and grants for development for teacher training materials and
strengthening the academic support structure.
 Two sets of uniforms for all girls, and children belonging to SC/ST/BPL families,
 Strengthening of academic support through block and cluster resource centres,
schools, etc.
 Provide quality elementary education including life skills with a special focus on
the education of girls and children with special needs as well as computer
education to bridge vital divide.

The focus is no more only on the quantitative expansion of institutions and enrolment
but equal emphasis is being laid on the quality improvement The school system is being
revitalized by introducing administrative and management reforms, curriculum renewal
teaching methodologies to evolve the facilitating conditions for learner to remain in the
school for eight years and not dropping out.

Mid Day Meal Scheme :

1. With a view to enhancing enrolment, retention and attendance and

simultaneously improving nutritional levels among children, the National
Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE) was launched
as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme on 15th August 1995. In 2001 MDMS became a
cooked Mid Day Meal Scheme under which every child in every Government and
Government aided primary school was to be served a prepared Mid Day Meal
with a minimum content of 300 calories of energy and 8-12 gram protein per day
for a minimum of 200 days.
2. The Scheme was further extended in 2002 to cover not only children studying in
Government, Government aided and local body schools, but also children
studying in Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and Alternative & Innovative
Education (AIE) centres. In September 2004 theScheme was revised to provide for
Central Assistance for Cooking cost @ Re1per child per school day to cover cost of
 pulses, vegetables cooking oil condiments, fuel and wages and remuneration
payable to personnel or amount payable to agency responsible for cooking.
Transport subsidy was also raised from the earlier maximum of Rs 50 per quintal
to Rs. 100 per quintal for special category states and Rs 75 per quintal for other
states. Central assistance was provided for the first time for management,
monitoring and evaluation of the scheme @ 2% of the cost of food grains,
transport subsidy and cooking assistance.A provision for serving mid day meal
during summer vacation in drought affected areas was also made. In July 2006
the Scheme was further revised to enhance the cooking cost to Rs 1.80 per child/
school day for States in the North Eastern Region and Rs 1.50 per child / school
day for other States and UTs.
3. The nutritional norm for upper primary stage was fixed at 700 Calories and 20
grams of protein. The Scheme was extended to all areas across the country from
1.4.2008.The Scheme was further revised in April 2008 to extend the scheme to
recognized as well as unrecognized Madarsas / Maqtabs supported under SSA.
4. The Mid Day Meal is the world’s largest school feeding programme reaching out
to about 12 crore children in over 12.65 lakh schools/ EGS centres across the
country. Today Mid day Meal scheme is serving primary and upper primary school
children in entire country. The present status of MDG indicators under Goal 2,
throws light on the remarkable achievement in the field of universalisation of
Primary education, the focussed initiatives are to be continued to maintain the
momentum gathered so far, addressing the specific issues of the vulnerable
groups of children who tends to miss primary education at any point of time due
to various socio – economic hurdles.

Need of Education to Disadvantaged Sections of Society :

Women, STs, SCs, and OBCs Education to women is necessary so that they can attain
equality. It is a prerequisite for value change as without value change, the social
objectives cannot be achieved The social legislations have given them political
economic, social and religious rights but merely giving them rights does not motivate
them to avail these rights to their benefit The law may give them the right to vote in
elections, contest elections and hold political posts but it cannot compel them to do so.
The law may give them the right to get a share in father’s property but women may not
compel their brothers to give them their due share. The law may give them the right to
select their own life partner and to divorce the husband who humiliates them, tortures
them or exploits them, but how many women insist on using this right? This is mainly
because illiteracy has made them stick to traditional values. Lack of courage prevents
them from taking initiative for a bold step. Education will make them liberal and
broadminded and change their attitudes, values and role perceptions. The empirical
study
conducted in eight states in 1967 on 11,500 students studying at various levels points
out ‘gender’ as the most pronounced differentiation in educational opportunity. While
broadly speaking education of girls has made strides and today in many faculties and
departments of universities, more girls than boys are to be seen. Empirical data shows
that the girls who enter the educational system are largely those from the urban high
caste, white collar families. Rural residence, low caste, and low economic standing
definitely tend to deny opportunities of education to a girl (Gore).The following specific
steps have been taken for improving girls/women’s participation in education:

1. Under the scheme of Operation Blackboard, the government has provided

assistance since1987-88 for the creation of about one lakh posts of primary
school teachers mainly to be filled by women. In five years about 75 per cent of
these posts were filled up of which about 60 per cent were women teachers.
2. The ‘Mahila Samakhya’ (Education for Women’s Equality) Project was launched in
April 1989 which aimed at mobilizing rural women for education through Mahila
Sangha in each of the villages concerned This is a Central scheme where full
financial assistance is provided to Mahila Samakhya societies in Uttar Pradesh,
Karnataka and Gujarat As an Indo-Dutch programme, it receives cent percent
assistance from the government of the Netherlands. The focus of the programme
is on generating demand for education and introducing innovative educational
inputs for pre-school non formal, adult and continuing education.
3. Admission of girls to the extent of 28 per cent in Navodaya Vidyalayas has been
ensured
4. Special attention is given to enrolment of women in adult education centres.
5. Under the rural functional literacy programmes, of the total adult illiterates
enrolled by1995, about 55 per cent were women. Kasturba Gandhi Balika
Vidyalaya Yojana for free education to girls from weaker sections, SC, ST, OBC.

The National Policy on Education-1986 also laid emphasis on education for attaining
women’s equality which will foster the development of new values. The strategies
proposed are: encouraging educational
institutions to take up active programmes to further women’s development removal of
women’s illiteracy removing obstacles inhibiting their access to elementary education,
and pursuing policy of nondiscrimination to eliminate sex stereotyping in vocational
technical and professional courses.

The law cannot compel a woman to educate herself. Nor the parents can be compelled
to send their daughters to schools. And without education, women’s equality cannot be
attained What is needed is change of attitudes both in men and women towards girls
education.

Education of SCs, STs, and OBCs

Education is directly related to the development of an individual and the community. It
is the most important single factor for economic development as well as social
emancipation. For the weaker sections of society, education has a special significance
because for a number of centuries, their illiteracy and social backwardness have been
used for their harassment, humiliation and economic exploitation.The problems of
education of the underprivileged groups and the general population are different both
quantitatively as well as qualitatively. It was in the context of quantitative and
qualitative differences that the Central Advisory Board of Education recommended
about two decades ago (in July1976) that

1. Universalisation of elementary education of SCs and STs is necessary, particularly

in selected areas.
2. Since SCs and STs are not homogeneous groups (with high variations in literary
levels – tribe-wise and caste-wise in different states), differentiated programmes
are necessary for them.
3. Since educational infrastructure is non-existent in many cases in the tribal areas, a
network of educational institutions of single-teacher schools and hostel facilities
according to the density of school network need to be planned for each micro
unit.

Steps Taken for Educational Development of SCs and STs, and OBCs

1. Our Constitution has directed the states to promote the educational interests of
the weaker sections of the people, particularly of SCs and STs in terms of
establishment of and admission to educational institutions and grant from state
funds for scholarships, etc. It has thus consciously provided a policy of temporary
discrimination for them.
2. In view of this direction, a provision has been made in all Five Year Plans providing
crores of rupees for raising the level of education among the SCs and STs by
opening schools, giving pre-matric and post-matric scholarships, constructing
hostels particularly for girls.Creating book-banks, mid-day meals, loans to
students, coaching centres, houses for teachers and so forth.
3. Reserving seats in educational institutions including engineering and medical
colleges.
4. Relaxation in age and marks for admission.
5. Free special coaching to students aspiring for admission to professional courses or
preparing for central and state level competitive examinations.

The National Policy on Education -1986 contemplated the following measures to

educate SCs, STs, and OBCs:

1. Incentives to SC families to send their children to school regularly till they reach
the age of 14.
2. Pre-matric scholarship scheme for children of families engaged in low occupations
(scavenging, tanning, etc.) from Class I onwards.
3. Constant monitoring to ensure enrolment, retention and successful completion of
courses.
4. Recruitment of teachers from SCs. Facilities in hostels.
5. Locating schools, Balwadis and Education Centres in such a way as to facilitate full
participation of SCs.
6. Constant innovation in finding new methods to increase participation.
7. Priority to opening primary schools in the tribal areas.
 8. Devising instructional materials in tribal languages at the initial stages.
9. Encouraging educated tribals to take up teaching in tribal areas.
10.Establishing residential schools on a large scale.
11.Incentives to all educationally-backward sections of society particularly in the
rural areas.
12.Providing institutional infrastructure in hill and desert districts and in remote and
inaccessible areas.

Causes of failure of education programmes for the SCs and STs

1. High percentage of dropouts. Though the number of SC/ST children in primary

classes has gradually increased in the last five decades yet a large number of
students dropout by the time they pass 5th standard. It is estimated that the
percentage of wastage in different states both among SC and ST communities
vary from 30 (Himachal Pradesh) to 88 (Manipur). However, wastage among the
STs is much higher than that among the SCs.
2. Ineffective reservations: All reserved seats are not filled up due to non-availability
of the required qualified candidates.
3. Meager scholarship: Money spent on education is much more than the money
received as scholarship.
4. Inadequate facilities: In some tribal areas, schools are located in distinct places
and children and children find it difficult to reach school. Similarly, adequate
hostel facilities are also not easily available.
5. Frequent absence of teachers in remote areas: Most of schools in tribal as well as
non-tribal areas are one teacher schools. Teachers are either not willing to be
posted in these isolated areas or they remain absent so frequently that student’s
education suffers.
6. Medium of instruction: Tribal children speak their own dialect while teaching in
primary classes is through the state language.This language problem makes
students disinterested in their studies as they cannot read the text-books written
in unfamiliar language.
7. Cultural and social barriers: Among many tribals, the custom of marrying
daughters at an early age and not permitting daughter-in-law to go for studies
acts as a barrier to acquiring education. Moreover, most tribals have a feeling
that the educated tribal youths would not respect the traditional norms and
values of life.

According to Prasad, it may, unless tribals are taught both their tribal dialects and state
languages, teachers are given incentives for working in isolated areas, single-teacher
system is replaced by two or more teacher system, and unless school timings are fixed
according to the convenience of the local people, an education will remain inaccessible
to the vast majority of SC/ST students. Only especially crafted education policy will fulfil
the needs of SCs and STs. Achieving merit and ability is possible only through
education.Though education does not guarantee high status and higher positions to all
people, yet without education, an individual is unlikely to achieve social mobility.
Rationalizing education to educate the masses, and altering the system to suit the needs
of the people, not the politicians, is required in India.To secure for our nation a bright
future, the youth must be empowered to create a secular, civilized literate and
developed society, for which our ancestors yearned and sacrificed their lives. The
visions of a truly democratic and developed nation and prevalence of literacy alone can
provide power, inspiration and motivation to do so.