Role Name Affiliation

National Coordinator

Subject Coordinator Prof Sujata Patel Dept. of Sociology,

University of Hyderabad

Paper Coordinator Manish Thakur Indian Institute of Management,

Calcutta

Content Writer Somyabrata Bagchi Indian Institute of Management,

Calcutta

Content Reviewer Manish Thakur Indian Institute of Management,

Calcutta

Language Editor Manish Thakur Indian Institute of Management,

Calcutta

Technical Conversion

Module Structure

Understanding Contemporary Ruralities I Introduction,Studies of Village India: Change and

continuity, Rural India Today; Some Issues
Concerning India’s Villages; In Brief.

Description of the Module

Items Description of the Module

Subject Name Sociology

Paper Name Agrarian Relations and Social Structure in India

Module Name/Title Understanding contemporary ruralities I

Module Id 6.3 A

Pre Requisites

Objectives This module introduces you tothe changing

fortunes of the idea of the village and the attendant

0
 discourse on rurality. It helps you trace the
historical evolution of the idea of the village, and
its place on the academic and political agendas of
the day.

Key words Village, rurality, tradition, change, community

Introduction

For long, the village has been seen as the epitome of social, cultural, and economic life of the
country. The term village does not merely refer to a peculiar type of rural settlement distinct
from cities and town. It also represents a different type of social formation (Jodhka, 2013: 1).
Village is often conceived as paragon of traditionalism, a kind of settlement smaller in size,
and conveys elementary mode of social and economic organization. The economic life of a
village is organized around agriculture. Apart from
Multimedia link
livelihood, the social and cultural life, sentiment, and even
identity of a villager revolve around land. The small-scale A short documentary on village
life in North India
nature of village life makes it feasible for the villagers to
know one other intimately. In a village, the inhabitants https://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=hAkMZD4zFGg
perceive each other as the members of the same
community. They possess a feeling of oneness and shared
identity. The villagers generally share strong kinship bonds and some of the kin live under the
same roof, as in joint families.

The idea of the village has had an important place in both academic and political discourses.
In pre-independent India, the village was considered the template through which “India was
imagined and imaged” by the colonial rulers and the nationalist leaders (ibid, 2013: 4). For
the colonial rulers as well, the village was a signifier of the ‘native life’. Charles Metcalfe, a
British colonial administrator, referred to Indian villages as ‘little republics’. Indian
nationalist leaders too put the village on a higher moral pedestal by calling it ‘the real India’.

Indian villages and village life have also been represented and disseminated through art,
literature, cinema, and television. Social scientistsinterested in studying Indian society and
culture have also been invariably drawn to the village and village life. The economist
primarily looks at the village in terms of its economy. On the contrary, sociologists and social

1
anthropologists conduct long term fieldwork to analyze social structure, social organization,
and beliefs and value system of the villagers.

Even before Independence, fieldwork was conducted in Indian villages. For example, Wiser
in his ‘The Hindu Jajmani System’ (1936) discussed that reciprocity was the underlying
function of the Indian villages. The social organization of villages is hierarchal but such
interdependence integrates different caste groups. He wrote “Each serves the other. Each in
turn is master. Each in turn is servant” (cited in Jodhka 2013: 8). Some relevant works on
Indian village are collected and published by M.N.Srinivas in 1955 in the form of a book
entitled as ‘India’s Villages’. In the same year McKimMarriott’s ‘Village India’, D. N.
Majumdar’s ‘Rural Profiles’, and S.C. Dube’s ‘Indian Village’ are published. Dube’s ‘Indian
Village’ is the first full length study of village. The influence of Robert Redfield, an
American anthropologist,
especially his Do You Know concept of ‘little
community’ was In June 2011, Shiv Nagar, a village quite apparent in
the study of Indian village.
in Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh, India
Village studies, became SnapDeal.com Nagar. The villagers had to after the
independence, walk for miles to collect drinking water. became an
attractive field SnapDeal, an Indian e-commerce company, have of enquiry.
These studies installed 15 hand pumps. After that the villagers helpedus get rid
of the decided to change the name to convey their stereotypical
portrayals of the gratitude. village by the
colonial administrators.
These studies argue that Indian villages are well connected with the broader economy and
society. The ‘book view’ of Indian society does not match with the actual reality of the
village life. The caste system which is an important institution of village is not a closed and
inflexible system even as vertical ties are the basis of village social organization. In fact, “the
caste system divides the village and weakens the sense of village solidarity” (Lewis, 1958:
314). As part of his village study, McKim Marriot modified the Redfieldian notion of great
tradition and little tradition and developed the concepts of universalization and
parochilization. The universalization is a process by which a local phenomenon becomes
universalized and by the parochialization ‘Sanskritik’ elements are internalised by the folk
people. Likewise, M.N.Srinivas observed the existence of dominant caste as a feature of
village life in many parts of India. When the population of a caste group in a village is high

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and the members possess substantial number of land and political power, the caste group is
said to be dominant. The dominant castes play important role in settlement of local disputes
and control of local resources. Srinivas also develops the concept of Sanskritization to
analyse the process of social change among the low caste groups. To him, the people having
lower status change their way of life in the direction of a high caste. He points out that the
village and caste are the two sources of identity for the villagers. The villagers perceive that
an insult to their village means an insult to them. Dube also stressed this argument. He is of
opinion that villages all over the Indian subcontinent have some common features. In a
village different castes and communities have mutual reciprocal obligations to each other.
The social life of a village is fragmented by the existence of different caste groups but it
appears as an organized compact entity to the outside world (Dube, 1955: 202). As Beteille
argues “...the village was not merely a place where people lived; it had a design in which
were reflected the basic value of Indian civilization.”
Multimedia link
(Beteille, 1980: 108). Apart from these scholars, G.C.Ghurye,
F.G.Bailey, A.C.Mayer, E.B.Harper, K.Ishwaran, S.Epstein, Morning life on an Indian village
street
A.R.Beals, Y.V.Lakshmana, H.Orensteen, G.P.Steed, and
B.R. Chauhan produce their works on village society. The https://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=KKLty3P1AUo
aforesaid is merely to underline the significance of village in
the early wave of sociological studies in India. As you will
see, in this module, our focus is more on the contemporary trends in village studies rather
than on studies in the past. We will also speculate on the future trends of village studies in
India given its glorious past in the history of sociology.

Studies of Village India: Change and continuity

The independence of India brought about considerable changes in the village society and
agrarian economy. The Indian state undertook several initiatives to transform the village
economy and to reduce poverty and inequality through its rural development programmes.
Land reforms were considered necessary for the modernization of agriculture and to eliminate
intermediary tenures, control rent and tenancy rights, grant ownership right to tenants, impose
limitation on land holdings, and distribute the excess land among the poor. It was meant to
have an impact on the existing power structure of the rural society.
The Green Revolution was introduced in 1960s. It is actually the implementation of
Higher Yielding Variety (HYV) seeds, chemical fertilizers, infrastructure for irrigation, and
pesticides. The other parts of Green Revolution are cheap institutional credit, price incentives

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and marketing facilities. At first it was proclaimed that the introduction of new technology
would benefit both the rich and small farmers. But in reality it is observed that only the big
farmers find it beneficial as they produce enough surpluses to buy the required inputs. But for
the small farmers who do not have enough surpluses to invest in new technology, it increases
the burden of debt. Therefore, the economic and political conditions of the rich farmers are
enhanced by the Green Revolution on one hand, and the dependency of small farmers on rich
farmers grows on the other hand.
The poor villagers were mostly dependent on usurious moneylenders. In a report
(1969),the Reserve Bank of India reported that approximately 91% rural cultivators take
loans from informal credit sources including local moneylenders (69.7%). So, the
Government of India decided to expand the formal sources of easy and cheap loans in the
rural areas. The cooperative credit societies were formed in the villages. Commercial banks
are directed to open branches in the rural areas and provide loans to the agricultural sectors.
As a result, the dependency of rural
people on usurious Point to remember moneylenders has
declined significantly ShaniShingnapura village in over the years. In 1981,
on an average, 62.6 % the Indian state of Maharashtra, is of the total credit
requirements were famous for the fact that no house in managed by institutional
sources of credit (RBI the village has doors, only door 2013: 11). However,
some scholars argue that frames. the benefits of the
formal sources of credit are largely used by the
better off sections of the society instead of the rural poor.
Community Development Program (CDP) was launched for the all-round development of the
rural poor in 1952. But the program failed to do well as there was no formal institution at the
village level to convey the needs of the rural people. Therefore, the Balwantrai Mehta
Committee recommended democratic decentralization through Panchayati Raj Institutions.
For the Committee, “public participation in community works should be organized through
statutory representative bodies” (Mathew, 2002: 8). Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime
Minister of India, introduced panchayati raj in Naguar district of Rajasthan on 2 nd October,
1959 and by the mid-sixties panchayats had been set up in most part of the country. In its
initial phase, a substantial number of younger people began to participate in democratic
election and, as a result, a large number of leaders emerged from the local level. But after
Nehru’s death, the political leaders started ignoring the panchayat system. The panchayat
bodies suffered from scarcity of funds and irregular elections. In many cases, these bodies

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were simply defunct. Therefore, in order to make panchayats viable and responsive
institutions the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act (1993) was passed. Through this
amendment,the establishment of panchayati raj has been mandated for all the states. A
massive change in village societies has occurred through the introduction of the PRIs. A
considerable number of people from underprivileged sections of the society, and women
come forward and join politics. Thus, a change in rural power structure and gender role, and
women’s status has taken place in villages.
Karanth (1987) is of opinion that the traditional jajmani system in the Indian villages has
adapted itself according to the changing needs of the people. Intervention of new technology
in the village economy has made significant impact. It does not alter mutual relationship and
dependency among the agrarian communities. In Rajapira village Karanth (1987) has
observed that introduction of sericulture did not affect the jajmani system. New technology
helps to emerge new types of service specialist in the villages. The roles of these new
specialists are not hereditary. Either they
replace old specialists or Point to remember they compete with
them. In this way it ‘Ha’ village in Arunachal changes patron-client
composition in the network Pradesh is the smallest of the jajmani system.
People still engage in the named village in India. jajmani network
mainly because of two reasons. First, their
hereditary works are found as supplementing their
income. Many villagers consider their caste occupation such as priesthood as a side work.
Second, maintaining caste tradition gives a sense
of satisfaction (Karnath, Point to remember 1987: 114). The point
is that the village economy Gahmar is the largest village in continues the
elements of tradition. India. It is situated in the
Common Property Ghazipur district in the state of Resources (CPR) and
their importance in rural Uttar Pradesh. economy have
received enough attention by the researchers and
development planners after the
independence. CPR includes those resources which are obtainable to the all villagers and no
particular individual has absolute property rights for example, village pastures forests, ponds,
river and riverbeds, and waste dumping place. Village pastures provides gazing land and
fodder that help in livestock production. The small farmers cannot use their paddy field as
pasture land. CPRs also play an important role during crisis time such as drought.

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Jodha(1986) has argued that 84-100% poor villagers are dependent on CPRs for food, fuel,
fodder, and fibre items. Though the dependency of large farmers on CPRs is low in
comparison to the poor, they collect silt from ponds to increase the productivity of their land.
It has also been noted that the large farmers use timber from village forests for their private
use. CPRs are neglected because the rural development planning mainly emphasized on
Private Property Resources (PPR) including high yielding crop varieties, distribution of
cross-bred cattle, providing infrastructures for ground
water lifting devices. Another important reason is that Point to remember
exploiting CPRs does not require any specialized ShaniShingnapura village in
knowledge. Collecting resources from CPR are also a the Indian state of Maharashtra, is
laborious job. Moreover, it has a low-pay-off. So it is famous for the fact that no house in
unappealing for the rich. the village has doors, only door
A gradual decline of CPRs is also noted. It is mainly frames.
because of physical loss of resources, deterioration of
resources, and privatization CPR. Physical loss of CPRs happens due to development
initiatives such as construction of irrigation dam, road, and building. In many areas CPRs are
used as daily basis that leads to a gradual deterioration of resources. In many areas CPR lands
are distributed among the poor and landless people.The movement and agitation of the
villagers in different parts of the country have also acquired a dimension in study of village
societies. In the central part of India the villagers organized ‘Chipko movement’ (1970)
against the deforestation and chopping down trees for commercial use. In West Bengal, the
villagers protested against the acquisition of arable land for industrial purposes in 2007.Thus
the contemporary trends in the study of Indian village are shaped by the post-independence
development initiatives, policy reforms, change of agrarian economy, empowerment of rural
people, and the rapid development of technology and communication.

Rural India today

Role of women in Indian villages
Cattle dung is an important source of fuel, fertilizer, and plaster in many Indian villages.
Cattle are largely found in rural houses. These cattle are mostly owned by the men. But cattle
dung and dung work are exclusively associated with women. In villages it is very usual to see
women walking at the back of the herds of animals or moving around the gazing land to
collect dung. Men have a feeling of abhorrence to handle those excrements. Jeffery et al
(1989) argue that men from underprivileged sections of society particularly Chamar (leather

6
workers) and Bhangi (sweeper) castes were engaged in dung work for hereditary patrons in
the jajmani system (Jeffry et al 1989: 147). But now women do most of the dung work,
although they belong to the rich peasant households (ibid,
1989: 147). Dung work is a strenuous job. Women
continuously need to bend and pick up ordure, and then lift
it on their heads and carry up to a quarter of mile. Women
can abandon this job only during pregnancy (ibid, 1989:
148).Despite this huge contribution from the side of rural
women, their roles are not considered significant by the
economists, policy makers, and scholars of Indian villages. Figure 1: Rural womencarrying
cow dungs
Land is considered an important asset in rural India because
the Indian society is predominately an agrarian society. Inheritance of property rights or the
ownership of land mostly follows patrilineal lines. So, in most parts of the country males are
the owner of land. There are some exceptions in
Multimedia link
matrilineal societies found in some parts of Southern
and North-Eastern India. A day in the life of rural women Before the adoption of
modern technology in https://www.youtube.com/wat agriculture during the
1970s, India had homestead ch?v=DwMPoVtLSnk agricultural economy. Then
women had massive participation in agricultural
practices. After implementing mechanised
agriculture system, India becomes an agriculturally surplus economy but women participation
in agriculture is reduced drastically. In modern agriculture, human labour is replaced by
machineries which are predominately operated by the males. So Goli and Apollo Pou (2014)
argue ‘female labour is systematically replaced by man’ (Goli et al, 2014: 214). The women
are not given their rights of ownership and control of their land in most part of rural India. It
has been reported that not more than two percent land ownership belongs to women (Ghosh,
2009). They do not even have liberty to spend their earnings independently. As they are
excluded from property rights, they have low autonomy and decision making power in
society. Goli and Apollo Pou (2014) find that in villages women are still dominated by the
male even when they are employed and educated.

Changing nature of Village Politics

Indian villages are replete with caste and agrarian conflicts. In general, people from the
underprivileged sections of the society are exploited by the dominant caste groups. However,

7
the emergence of caste politics has witnessed a massive reconfiguration of power relations in
the countryside. Politically, the backward castes have begun to challenge the authority of the
upper caste, and economically they challenge semi-feudal practices (Vaddiraju, 1999:181). In
North India,Dalit politics is a force to reckon with despite its split with the emergence of
MBC or More Backward Castes. The rise of MBCs alters social relations and power equation
in the villages (Pain and Singh, 1997: 179). Traditionally, the caste conflict was prevalent
between the upper and lower caste groups. But with the emergence of the MBCs, the
underprivileged sections are divided into several sub groups. It affects the political
preferences of the villagers (ibid, 1997: 179).

The rise of regional politics and the introduction of the village panchayatshave brought about
massive change in the villages. The state of West Bengal is a good example in this context. In
1977, the Left Front Government came to power in West Bengal. One of their achievements
was to revive the Panchayati Raj System of the state (Lieten, 1988, 1992). To bring contest
and accountability, they introduced party politics
in panchayati raj (ibid, Point to remember 1988, 1992). From 1978
to 2008,in panchayat ‘JangalMehfujaMehduda Nain elections, the Left Front
Government had GujranTihra’ is the longest achieved an
overwhelming majority. named village in India. It is
Debraj Bhattacharya situated in Himachal Pradesh. argues “CPI (M) has
always had an ambivalent attitude
towards the relationship between the Party and the Panchayat” (Bhattacharya, 2013: 119).
The CPI (M)’s West Bengal State Committee document (1994) mentions that party will
provide direction and guidance to active panchayat in conformity with the principles and
ideals of the party (Bhattacharya, 2013: 119-120). Therefore, panchayat sub committees are
formed at each level of panchayat by CPI (M) (ibid, 2013: 119). These are also known as
‘ParichalanCommitte’ in Bengali. Through these committees party domination has been
established over the panchayats. All major decisions and activities of gram panchyats are
overseen by the party (Kohil, 1987, Bhattacharyya, 2002, Bhattacharya 2013:
120).RajarshiDasgupta (2009) calls it as well-oiled CPI (M) machinery.

8
Therefore, it is evident that panchayats are dominated by the party. As a result of party
domination, the common villagers keep themselves away from the activities of panchayats
and politicization of rural life also occurs side by side (Bhattacharya, 2002).
Role of technology in changing village life
As the cliché goes, the foundation of the village economy is agriculture. It provides
sustenance to millions of people of the country. Science and technology have played
important roles in increasing productions. Despite the increasing use of agricultural
technology, Indian villages have a severe technology deficit. There is also dearth of
electricity, water, health and communication facilities in rural areas. Government of India has
taken several measures to transform rural India by introducing modern technology. In what

9
follows we will talk about some of the technology initiatives having a bearing on the village
life in general.

Green revolution
India faced food crisis during the mid-1960s owing to her agriculture being seasonal, nature
bound, and household based. Green revolution transforms household bound agriculture into
science and Industry based. The success of green revolution depends on use of modern
technologies including high yielding varieties of seed, use of fertilizers, pesticides,
agricultural machinery, and irrigation. Therefore, it is crucial to build proper infrastructure in
rural areas, and cultivators should be endowed with credit facilities and marketing
opportunities. It has been observed that the Green Revolution has mixed impacts across the
country. The package of modern technology cannot be implemented totally in all villages.
Irrigation facilities are still unavailable in many drought prone regions. However, there is a
marked increase in agricultural production. Such increase in production promotes
transformation of earlier subsistence-centred agriculture into a market-oriented one in some
regions of the country (Bhalla and Singh 1997: A15). The hired labours gained substantially
through this development (Shergill and Singh 1995: A80). When cultivation was nature
based, the labours were hired only once in a year. But as a result of Green Revolution
farming happens twice or more in a year. So there is a sharp increase in the demand of
agricultural labours. On the other hand, agricultural
Multimedia link
mechanization leads to the formation of a new class
of labours who are skilled in Millions Fed: Leaving the Plow operating modern
Behind (A documentary on
technology such as drivers of Green Revolution) tractors, and the operators
of power tillers. Besides, diversified income
https://www.youtube.com/wat
opportunities including off- ch?v=ysM2EuoVYfI farm labour are also
increased in rural areas as the absorption power of
agriculture reached its limits (Simmons and Supri 1996: 182). Indigenous agricultural
implements such as plough, ladder, and livestock such as the bullock have almost vanished.
As a result, traditional work-groups that maintain their livelihood by manufacturing those
tools have moved out as well (Sammader and Das, 2008: 547). Another important feature of
village agriculture is that in Indian villages cultivation is not only a means of subsistence but
also it is deeply embedded in the long tradition of cultural practices. Many rituals are
performed according to the agricultural cycle. Adoption of modern technology changes the
nature of agricultural cycle. Moreover, modern package of agriculture has not been

10
implemented uniformly all over the country. Therefore, differences in cultural practices have
been noted in different villages. For example, Vasavi (1999) finds that traditional customs
and beliefs remain integrated in modern agriculture, but on the whole, the tendency is
towards their decline.
Agricultural rituals are essential components of the traditional production system. Such
rituals are performed in different stages of farming. In general, agricultural rituals can be
classified into four types such as land preparation rituals, transplantation rituals, post-trans-
plantation rituals, and harvesting and post-harvesting rituals. It has been observed that
peasants are reluctant to perform agricultural rituals in the wake of Green Revolution.
Sammadar and Das (2008) in their field work have observed that only post harvesting rituals
are performed by the farmers during the harvesting and the storing of the rice crop. The
peasants no longer follow the traditional calendar of sowing, broadcasting, and
transplantation because of the introduction of high yielding varieties of seeds and controlled
irrigation. The farmers are more concerned on
Point to remember
increasing their production. It is thought that
agricultural rituals are The state Uttar Pradest has the mostly associated
with insecurities related to
highest number of villages in production such as
the country. The state has
monsoons, and rainfall. As they have irrigation
more than 1 Lac villages.
facilities, and pesticides, the value of agricultural
rituals has been supplanted. The folklore,
rhymes, and aphorism which are developed through generation have lost their significance in
the new production system. On the contrary, performing family rituals have flourished
significantly due to increase in annual income (Sammader and Das, 2008: 551). The farmers
adore the God and Goddess and pray for their success in farming and well-being. The
celebration of community rituals is another new dimension of village life in post Green
Revolution period. Village youth or political clubs organize festivals. The members collect
contributions from different families in the village. In such ceremonies both affluent and poor
people can worship the Gods together. Different villages compete with each other in
organizing these ceremonies. Sometimes villagers hire stage performers to vie with
neighbourhood villages. These family and community rituals denote prosperity of the
villages. It also shows wealth and economic status within the traditional village hierarchy. It
has been noted that as a result of technology adoption and economic gains, the traditional
caste hierarchy and patriarchal order are no more rigid as these were in the past. The lower
caste rich villagers invite Brahmin priests to perform their family rituals. Women are freed

11
from farm work and they have more authority to manage household works according to their
own plans and desires.

Mobile technology
Mobile technology is introduced in India in 1995. Government has taken conscious efforts to
expand mobile networks in the rural areas. Many service providers and handset companies
compete with each other to make inroads among the rural consumers. The government
initiatives and competition among the private companies have resulted in reduction in tariff
and handset prices. Now mobile phones are the most widely used communication technology
device in rural India. Establishing mobile technology in an area is cheaper than that of land
phone connection. Moreover, using computer and internet requires skills and basic education
but using mobiles phone does not require literacy. It has been reported that there were 130
million mobile phones in India on October, 2006 (Tenhunen, 2008: 515). But by July, 2014
the subscriber base has been raised to 918.72 million as reported by the Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India (TRAI) (TRAI, 2014). Among them 378.29 million people are the rural
consumers, and the proportion of rural Tele-density is 41.18 (TRAI, 2014)1.
Mobile phones bring significant benefits to the rural poor. Phones are used to search
market related information, agricultural production, and also provide access to the police,
hospitals, legislators, and other emergency services in the remote rural areas. In Chennai, the
Foundation of Occupational Development (FOOD) provides micro entrepreneurial training to
the women. The trained women are endowed with mobile phones. It has been observed that
mobile phones help to increase their earnings and empower them to take new initiatives (ibid,
2008: 517). Mobile phone technology in rural areas helps maintain social capital among the
rural migrants. In this way, it facilitates rural to urban migration for work and study (ibid,
2008: 517). Tenhunen (2008) in her ethnographic observation in Bankua district of West
Bengal, India, has observed that mobiles phones are used in some areas where there is no
electricity. The users travel to other villages where electric facilities are available to charge
their mobile batteries. To her ‘the mobile phone has become the home’s second electric
gadget after the radio’ (ibid, 2008: 519). Initially mobile phones are used by the car and
tractor drivers. It helps them to stay in touch with the customers, and to make emergency
contact with service and repair centres.

12
Before the arrival of the mobile telephony in rural areas, making a phone call comprised long
steps. Land phones were available only in few homes. So persons needed to identify the
neighbourhood phones of the persons to whom s/he wanted to speak. First, s/he requested the
neighbours to call the person. The later would wait by the neighbourhood phone at a specific
time. Sometimes, the caller delivered his/her message to the owner of the phone and
requested him to forward it to the exact person. Literate villagers used to write letters to
exchange information. But ‘calling has replaced most of the letter writing’ (ibid, 2008: 522).
One village post master informs Tenhunen (2008) that the circulation of private letters at first
declined and then ceased completely. Rural people also exchanged news through visitors. If
someone came from another village, s/he was asked about his/her villages. S/he was
requested to deliver certain news to the relevant persons. Such visitor networks once were a
reliable network of communication in rural areas Figure 2: Bridging the divide
(ibid, 2008: 523). Now people get the news of
their relatives instantly without visiting or
travelling distant places. In this way mobile
phones help to reduce expenditure on travel.
Reducing travel cost is the prime motivation for
rural people to purchase phones (ibid, 2008: 524).
Mobile phone helps to improve social network of
the villagers. It enables villagers to contact with their relatives and familiar persons who
reside in cities or abroad. Before, the arrival of mobile phones they could see each another
once in a year or two. At present, they can communicate whenever they want. As a result of
such frequent communication, flow of information on employment opportunities outside the
village have been increased (ibid, 2008: 524). Rapid expansion of mobile networks also
brings changes in village politics. Tenhunen (2008) in her ethnographic observation finds that
traditionally villagers depend on village leaders to solve disputes. But now they can seek help
from outside villages during conflicts. The mobile technology makes rural politics faster,
heterogeneous and trans-local. Earlier, the politics at the central and state level could not
reach at the grassroots level. The village politics were isolated from the state politics. Now
the rural activists can communicate with other activists and organizations more efficiently by
using their mobile phones (Tenhunen, 2012: 415). The activists can spread their words more
broadly and accurately through phones. The rural people are no more dependent entirely on
their local leaders and now they get an extra medium for verbalization of alternative
discourses. Hence a change in the rural power structure has occurred because the power shifts

13
from local leaders to trans-local networks. Such transformation leads to democratization of
the rural politics and it assists the growth of the opposition in rural West Bengal (ibid, 2012:
416).
Mobile phones bring considerable changes in the village economy as well. At first, the
farmers had to negotiate with the middlemen for selling their produces. Prices were fixed in
advance. Now the farmers can sell their produces by phone. They can negotiate with many
buyers without taking help of the middlemen. They can settle their prices at the last moment.
Thus, their earnings have gone up.

Digital divide
The term ‘digital divide’ stands for ‘the gap that exists between those who have and those
who do not have access to technology and related services’ (Rao, 2005: 363). Thus, India can
be divided into people who have and who do not have access to modern equipment including
telephones, computers, and internet facilities. Digital divide is apparent between the people in
cities and villages. According to the World Bank, adult literacy rate is 61% in India (World
Bank, 2006: 207). Moreover, Information and
Communication technologies Multimedia link (ICTs) are growing
rapidly in the country. But in Microsoft India Highlights
reality,access to ICTs
remains poor in villages. The Digital Divide In Urban & Rural digital gap has widened
in terms of certain India infrastructural
parameters including electricity, https://www.youtube.com/wat IT penetration, Tele
density, and the internet ch?v=sBs2jYSnDNQ density. The growth
rate of IT penetration in India is not encouraging. The
Hindu, a popular national newspaper in India, reported on June 5, 2014 that the IT
penetration growth in India is the lowest in Asia Pacific3. One of the important reasons for
slow IT penetration rate in India is the high cost of new computers. The installation cost of a
new computer including software is almost 40,000 INR (Rao, 2005: 365). Moreover, national
Tele density in India is one of the lowest in the world (ibid, 2005: 365). The rural and urban
Tele densities are 42.43 and 139.42 respectively in 2014 (TRAI, 2014)4. The figures clearly
indicate the digital gap between rural and urban. It has been estimated that 70 % of India’s
population, almost 83.3 crore people reside in villages5. The rest 37.7 crore people live in
urban areas. But there are 90 million urban internet users6 whereas in rural areas there are
only 68 million claimed internet users and among them only 49 million are active internet
users7by the end of October, 2013. It is also observed that a significant portion of rural users

14
are mobile internet users. Bridging the digital gap between rural and urban is necessary
because internet is not only a communication medium but also a place of economic activity.
Students and workers from remote corners get instant information about their study and jobs.
Through internet rural people can be endowed with the facilities of distance education, e-
governance, Tele medicine, job matching, and market place.
Several measures are taken to improve the condition of the villagers by introducing ICTs in
rural areas. For example, in Tamilnadu an e-commerce platform, named India Shop, has
been designedto sell the products made by the rural women co-operatives (Patil et al, 2009:
3). The Dhan Foundation and Swayam Krishi Sangam implement ICTs in order to manage
microfinance projects (ibid, 2009: 3). In West Bengal, an ICT project called ‘nabanna’ has
been implemented in Baduria, a rural region of North 24 Paraganas in order to empower the
rural women. The beneficiaries have reported that they are respected by their family and
community members. They feel that they are able to get jobs with enough confidence. As the
young women learn computer together at the centres, a sense of solidarity is growing among
them (United Nations, 2005: 8)8. In this way, subsistence patterns and patriarchal rigidity of
traditional Indian villages is changing with aid of modern technology.

Some Issues concerning India’s villages

15
Out of 121 crore Indians, 83.3 croreIndians reside in rural areas as per 2011 census. The
agriculturally active population has grown by 50% in between 1980 and 20119. Agriculture
provides sustenance to millions of people of the country. On the other hand, poverty and
malnutrition are two major problems facing rural India. According to the Eleventh Five Year
Plan (2007-2012), the number of poor people in the country amounted to 302 million as on
2004-0510. A large portion of them lives in rural areas11. According to Business Standard
report published in July, 2013, ‘almost half of rural India lives below poverty line’12. The
major causes of poverty among India’s rural people includes lack of access to productive
assets and financial resources, high levels of illiteracy, inadequate health care, limited access
to sanitation, drinking water, and other social services. These limitations result into massive
malnutrition, particularly undernourishment, in rural areas. In this context World Bank posits
that ‘malnutrition is largely a reflection of poverty: people do not have enough income for
food’ (The World Development Report, 1980: 59). Scholarly articles also argue that the
nutritional status of urban children is
better than that of the rural children
(Smith, Ruel, and Ndiaye, 2005:
1285). In villages men and women of
agricultural families go to fields in the
early morning. Many women
engage in cattle Figure 3: Malnutrition a ‘National shame’ work in addition
to their domestic activities. Poor
women from landless families work as maid servants, casual labours in cities. So they have
limited time to take care of their offspring. In most cases, when they go for work, they hand
over their younger children to their elder sons and daughter. Hence, the children do not get
proper maternal attention and nutritional requirements. Besides, the elder children are not
allowed to go schools because if they go to schools, who will look after their siblings? Apart
from this, due to rampant poverty and overburden of work, women in rural areas also suffer
nutritional deficiency. According to UNICEF, ‘Malnutrition is more common in India than in
Sub-Saharan Africa. One in every three malnourished children in the world lives in India’13.
Michael Lokshin et al (2005) point out two reasons for malnutrition. First, a large number of
people are unable to buy sufficient food (Lokshin et al, 2005: 613), and second majority of
population do not access proper sanitation and their living condition is so penurious that they
are exposed to diarrheal diseases and parasitic infections (ibid, 2005: 613). Malnutrition
severely affects country’s human resources.

16
In Brief

In this module, we have briefly told you about the efflorescence of village studies in the
1950s. Much of the work then looked at the village as the microcosm of Indian society and
culture. Students of village India sincerely thought that their studies of a particular village
had insights that could reveal larger dimensions of macro reality. Subsequently, government
initiatives like community development programme and the Green Revolution drew a large
number of sociologists to the study of processes of change in rural society. They were
interested in knowing if village institutions, values and mores impeded the processes of
induced social change. Viewed thus, we can safely say that students of village society, for
long, were occupied with the grand narrative of change and continuity that Indian sociology
had spawned. They wanted to demonstrate as to which aspects of village society were the
exemplification of change and which ones were the embodiment of continuity. As a
consequence, their studies remained confined to the staple of social institutions like caste and
joint family and the like. In due course, politics at the village level became an exciting field
of studies. The rise of the OBCs, the Dalit politics, political capture of local level institutions,
caste conflicts, land reformswere some of the popular themes for sociological investigation.
We have, though, indicated to you studies that covered the hitherto neglected areas of study
such as common property resources, changing role of women in village society, the
implications of the ICT for the villagers, digital divide and the other attendant changes in the
village economy. We have also identified some of the issues of concern for the villagers like
health, nutrition, education, lack of employment opportunities. In the next module (6.3 B), we
will talk about some of these areas of concern in the context of government initiatives. You
will find references there. These two modules (6.3 A and 6.3 B), put together will tell you
two things – (1) changes in the choice of substantive themes over the years, and (2) the new
issues having a bearing on the village life and its dynamics. You would see that there has not
been necessarily a fit between the two. More often than not, academic studies have lagged
behind the fast-paced changes in the village society. That is why, in the next module, we also
underline some of the new themes that students of village society can take up for further
investigation as they remain understudied.

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