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The Demographic Structure of the Indian Society

Demography studies the trends and processes associated with population including – changes in
population size; patterns of births, deaths, and migration; and the structure and composition of the
population, such as the relative proportions of women, men and different age groups.

The Malthusian Theory Of Population Growth

He argued that human populations tend to grow at a much faster rate than the rate at which the
means of human subsistence (especially food, but also clothing and other agriculture-based
products) can grow. Therefore humanity is condemned to live in poverty forever because the growth
of agricultural production will always be overtaken by population growth. Humanity has only a
limited ability to voluntarily reduce the growth of its population (through ‘preventive checks’ such as
postponing marriage or practicing sexual abstinence or celibacy). Malthus believed therefore that
‘positive checks’ to population growth – in the form of famines and diseases – were inevitable
because they were nature’s way of dealing with the imbalance between food supply and increasing
population.

The Theory Of Demographic Transition

It suggests that population growth is linked to overall levels of economic development and that
every society follows a typical pattern of development related population growth. There are three
basic phases of population growth. The first stage is that of low population growth in a society that is
underdeveloped and technologically backward. Growth rates are low because both the death rate
and the birth rate are very high, so that the difference between the two (or the net growth rate) is
low. The third (and last) stage is also one of low growth in a developed society where both death
rate and birth rate have been reduced considerably and the difference between them is again small.
Between these two stages is a transitional stage of movement from a backward to an advanced
stage, and this stage is characterised by very high rates of growth of population.

Social Institutions: Continuity and Change

‘Sanskritisation’ refers to a process whereby members of a (usually middle or lower) caste attempt
to raise their own social status by adopting the ritual, domestic and social practices of a caste (or
castes) of higher status. Although this phenomenon is an old one and predates Independence and
perhaps even the colonial period, it has intensified in recent times. The patterns for emulation
chosen most often were the brahmin or kshatriya castes; practices included adopting vegetarianism,
wearing of sacred thread, performance of specific prayers and religious ceremonies, and so on.
Sanskritisation usually accompanies or follows a rise in the economic status of the caste attempting
it, though it may also occur independently.
The impact of Sanskritisation is many-sided. Its influence can be seen in language, literature,
ideology, music, dance, drama, style of life and ritual.
Srinivas suggested that while ‘lower castes’ sought to be Sanskritised, ‘upper castes’ sought to be
Westernised.

Criticism of Sanskritisation
 It leads to no structural change but only positional change of some individuals.
 It has been pointed out that the ideology of sanskritisation accepts the ways of the ‘upper
caste’ as superior and that of the ‘lower caste’ as inferior.
 It seems to justify a model that rests on inequality and exclusion. It appears to suggest that
to believe in pollution and purity of groups of people is justifiable or all right.

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 It results in the adoption of upper caste rites and rituals it leads to practices of secluding girls
and women, adopting dowry practices instead of bride-price and practising caste
discrimination against other groups, etc.

‘Dominant caste’ is a term used to refer to those castes which had a large population and were
granted landrights by the partial land reforms effected after Independence. The land reforms took
away rights from the erstwhile claimants, the upper castes who were ‘absentee landlords’ in the
sense that they played no part in the agricultural economy other than claiming their rent. However,
once they got land rights, they acquired considerable economic power. Their large numbers also
gave them political power in the era of electoral democracy based on universal adult franchise. Thus,
these intermediate castes became the ‘dominant’ castes in the country side and played a decisive
role in regional politics and the agrarian economy.

Social Exclusion and Social Inequality

First, social inequality and exclusion are social because they are not about individuals but about
groups. Second, they are social in the sense that they are not economic, although there is usually a
strong link between social and economic inequality. Third, they are systematic and structured –
there is a definite pattern to social inequalities.

Social Inequality
In every society, some people have a greater share of valued resources – money, property,
education, health, and power – than others. These social resources can be divided into three forms
of capital – economic capital in the form of material assets and income; cultural capital such as
educational qualifications and status; and social capital in the form of networks of contacts and
social associations. Patterns of unequal access to social resources are commonly called social
inequality.
Social inequality is not the outcome of innate or ‘natural’ differences between people, but is
produced by the society in which they live. Sociologists use the term social stratification to refer to a
system by which categories of people in a society are ranked in a hierarchy. This hierarchy then
shapes people’s identity and experiences, their relations with others, as well as their access to
resources and opportunities.
 Social stratification is a characteristic of society, not simply a function of individual differences.
 Social stratification persists over generations.
 Social stratification is supported by patterns of belief, or ideology.

Social Exclusion
Social exclusion refers to ways in which individuals may become cut off from full involvement in the
wider society. It focuses attention on a broad range of factors that prevent individuals or groups
from having opportunities open to the majority of the population.

Sociological Perspective of Market

Adam Smith in his book Wealth of Nation – Smith argued that the market economy is made up of a
series of individual exchanges or transactions, which automatically create a functioning and ordered
system. Each person looks only to their own self-interest, but in the pursuit of this self-interest the
interests of all – or of society – also seem to be looked after.
Smith argued that the capitalist economy is driven by individual self-interest, and works best when
individual buyers and sellers make rational decisions that serve their own interests. Smith used the
idea of the ‘invisible hand’ to argue that society overall benefits when individuals pursue their own

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self-interest in the market, because it stimulates the economy and creates more wealth. For this
reason, Smith supported the idea of a ‘free market’, that is, a market free from all kinds of regulation
whether by the state or otherwise. This economic philosophy was also given the name laissez-faire, a
French phrase that means ‘leave alone’ or ‘let it be’.

Karl Marx, was also a critic of modern capitalism. Marx understood capitalism as a system of
commodity production, or production for the market, through the use of wage labour. Under the
capitalist mode of production, labour itself becomes a commodity, because workers must sell their
labour power in the market to earn a wage. This gives rise to two basic classes – capitalists, who own
the means of production (such as the factories), and workers, who sell their labour to the capitalists.
The capitalist class is able to profit from this system by paying the workers less than the value of
what they actually produce, and so extracting surplus value from their labour.

Commodification occurs when things that were earlier not traded in the market become
commodities. For instance, labour or skills become things that can be bought and sold. According to
Marx and other critics of capitalism, the process of commodification has negative social effects. Ex:
Human Organs, water, Marriage etc.

The term globalisation includes a number of trends, especially the increase in international
movement of commodities, money, information, and people, as well as the development of
technology. An example is the marketing of Indian spirituality and knowledge systems (such as yoga
and ayurveda) in the West.

Communalism
In everyday language, the word ‘communalism’ refers to aggressive chauvinism based on religious
identity. Chauvinism itself is an attitude that sees one’s own group as the only legitimate or worthy
group, with other groups being seen – by definition – as inferior, illegitimate and opposed. A
communalist may or may not be a devout person, and devout believers may or may not be
communalists.

Secularism
‘Equal protection by the State to all religions’ -Nehru on Secularism

One way of preventing religious discrimination is to work together for mutual enlightenment.
Education is one way of helping to change the mind-set of people.

A state governed directly by a priestly order is called theocratic. To be truly secular, a state must not
only refuse to be theocratic but also have no formal, legal alliance with any religion.

THE WESTERN MODEL OF SECULARISM

Inspired mainly by the American model, separation of religion and state is understood as mutual
exclusion: the state will not intervene in the affairs of religion and, in the same manner, religion will
not interfere in the affairs of the state. Similarly, the state cannot aid any religious institution. Nor
can it hinder the activities of religious communities, as long as they are within the broad limits set by
the law of the land. On this view, religion is a private matter, not a matter of state policy or law. This
common conception interprets freedom and equality in an individualist manner. Liberty is the liberty
of individuals. Equality is equality between individuals. There is no scope for the idea that a

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community has the liberty to follow practices of its own choosing. There is little scope for
community-based rights or minority rights. Finally, this form of mainstream secularism has no place
for the idea of state supported religious reform.

THE INDIAN MODEL OF SECULARISM

The advent of western modernity brought to the fore hitherto neglected and marginalised notions of
equality in Indian thought. It sharpened these ideas and helped us to focus on equality within the
community. It also ushered ideas of inter-community equality to replace the notion of hierarchy.
Thus Indian secularism took on a distinct form as a result of an interaction between what already
existed in a society that had religious diversity and the ideas that came from the west. It resulted in
equal focus on intra-religious and interreligious domination. Indian secularism equally opposed the
oppression of dalits and women within Hinduism, the discrimination against women within Indian
Islam or Christianity, and the possible threats that a majority community might pose to the rights of
the minority religious communities. This is its first important difference from mainstream western
secularism. Connected to it is the second difference. Indian secularism deals not only with religious
freedom of individuals but also with religious freedom of minority communities.
A third difference is this. Since a secular state must be concerned equally with intra-religious
domination, Indian secularism has made room for and is compatible with the idea of state-
supported religious reform. The secular character of the Indian state is established by virtue of the
fact that it is neither theocratic nor has it established any one or multiple religions. The Indian state
may engage with religion negatively to oppose religious tyranny. This is reflected in such actions as
the ban on untouchability. It may also choose a positive mode of engagement. Thus, the Indian
Constitution grants all religious minorities the right to establish and maintain their own educational
institutions which may receive assistance from the state.
A secularist might see the personal laws as manifestations of community specific rights that are
protected by the Constitution.

Nationalism
”Patriotism cannot be our final spiritual shelter; my refuge is humanity. I will not buy glass for the
price of diamonds, and I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity as long as I live.”
- Rabindranath Tagore
A nation is to a great extent an ‘imagined’ community, held together by the collective beliefs,
aspirations and imaginations of its members.
First, a nation is constituted by belief. Second, people who see themselves as a nation also embody a
sense of continuing historical identity. They articulate for themselves a sense of their own history by
drawing on collective memories, legends, and historical records, to outline the continuing identity of
the nation. Third, nations identify with a particular territory. Fourth, while territory and shared
historical identity play an important role in creating a sense of oneness, it is a shared vision of the
future and the collective aspiration to have an independent political existence that distinguishes
groups from nations.
Virtually every state in the world today faces the dilemma of how to deal with movements for self-
determination. It is believed that the solution does not lie in creating new states but in making
existing states more democratic and equal.
For instance, a person may have identities based on gender, caste group, religion, language, or
region, and may be proud of all of them. So long as each person feels that he/she can freely express
the different dimensions of his/her personality, they may not feel the need to make claims on the
state for political recognition and concessions for any one identity. In a democracy the political

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identity of citizen should encompass the different identities which people may have. It would be
dangerous if intolerant and homogenizing forms of identity and nationalism are allowed to develop.

Regionalism
Regionalism in India is rooted in India’s diversity of languages, cultures, tribes, and religions.
After Independence, initially the Indian state continued with the British-Indian arrangement dividing
India into large provinces, also called ‘presidencies’. These were large multi-ethnic and multilingual
provincial states constituting the major political-administrative units of a semi-federal state called
the Union of India.
In October 1953, Potti Sriramulu, a former Gandhian, died seven weeks after beginning a fast unto
death. Potti Sriramulu’s martyrdom provoked violent protests and led to the creation of the state of
Andhra Pradesh. It also led to the formation of the SRC, which in 1956 put the formal, final seal of
approval on the principle of linguistic states.
In the early 1950s, many including Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru feared that states based on
language might hasten a further subdivision of India. In fact, something like the reverse has
happened. Far from undermining Indian unity, linguistic states have helped strengthen it.
Another of India’s neighbours, Pakistan, was divided in 1971 because the Punjabi and Urdu speakers
of its western wing would not respect the sentiments of the Bengalis in the east.

Land Reform post-independence

Reason: Dismal agricultural situation in India at that time marked by low productivity, dependence
on imported food grains, and the intense poverty of a large section of the rural population.

Measure:
 Abolition of the zamindari system which removed the layer of intermediaries who stood
between the cultivators and the state.
 Tenancy abolition and regulation acts - They attempted either to outlaw tenancy altogether
or to regulate rents to give some security to the tenants.
 Land Ceiling Acts - These laws imposed an upper limit on the amount of land that can be
owned by a particular family.

Failures: Several loopholes, Benami Transfers.

Green Revolution
It was government programme of agricultural modernisation. It was largely funded by international
agencies that was based on providing high-yielding variety (HYV) or hybrid seeds along with
pesticides, fertilisers, and other inputs, to farmers. It was also targeted mainly at the wheat and rice-
growing areas.

Positive Impact:
 productivity increased
 self-sufficient in food grain production
 Employment and wages for agricultural workers did increase in many areas, because the
demand for labour increased.
 As cultivation became more commercialised these rural areas were also becoming
integrated into the wider economy.

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Negative Impact
 Primarily the medium and large farmers who were able to benefit from the new technology.
 increasing inequalities
 Disrupted cultivator-landlord relationship.
 Displacement of the service caste groups due to the use of machinery.
 Increase in cash drops => dependency on market fluctuations.

Globalisation
Early Years
India was not isolated from the world even two thousand years ago. We have read in our history
textbooks about the famous Silk route, which centuries ago connected India to the great
civilisations, which existed in China, Persia, Egypt and Rome. Throughout India’s long past, people
from different parts came here, sometimes as traders, sometimes as conquerors, sometimes as
migrants in search of new lands and settled down here. It is interesting to note that the greatest
grammarian in Sanskrit namely Panini, who systematised and transformed Sanskrit grammar and
phonetics around the fourth century BCE, was of Afghan origin.

Globalisation refers to the growing interdependence between different people, regions and
countries in the world as social and economic relationships come to stretch world-wide. Although
economic forces are an integral part of globalisation, it would be wrong to suggest that they alone
produce it. It has been driven forward above all by the development of information and
communication technologies that have intensified the speed and scope of interaction between
people all over the world.

Glocalisation – refers to the mixing of the global with the local. It is not entirely spontaneous. Nor is
it entirely delinked from the commercial interests of globalisation.

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