Chapter Info (Click Here)
Book No. – 22 (Sociology)
Book Name – Indian Society & Culture (Nadeem Hasnain)
What’s Inside the Chapter? (After Subscription)
1. Source of Social Change: Endogenous and Exogenous
2. Universalization and Parochialization
3. Processes of Change
3.1. Sanskritization
3.2. Westernization
3.3. Modernization
3.4. Secularization
3.5. Democratization
4. New Indian Elite and Emergence of Middle Class
5. Agents of Social Change
Note: The first chapter of every book is free.
Access this chapter with any subscription below:
- Half Yearly Plan (All Subject)
- Annual Plan (All Subject)
- Sociology (Single Subject)
- CUET PG + Sociology
LANGUAGE
Social Change in Modern India
Chapter – 24
Table of Contents
- Changes in culture and society are major theoretical concerns in sociology and social anthropology, with theoretical differences often evident in this area.
- Social change refers to alterations in the cultural, structural, population, or ecological characteristics of a social system such as a society.
- Social systems are always in a state of change, with man and his social institutions evolving over time.
- Both man and social institutions have undergone significant changes throughout history.
- Yogendra Singh (1996) views social change in India as ideology, highlighting the confusion between different levels, institutions, customs, and cultural forms that form the basis of sociological categories.
- Contemporary Indian society is undergoing rapid changes in both structure and functioning, with significant shifts in social institutions and values.
- Changes in social institutions will particularly impact Hindus, as their way of life is deeply tied to three core social institutions: Caste, Joint Family, and Village Community.
- These three social institutions—Caste, Joint Family, and Village Community—are undergoing important transformations.
- Traditionally, India has been described as a traditional society characterized by several key features:
- The status of a person is determined by birth, and individuals do not strive for social mobility.
- Individual behavior is governed by customs, with little variation from generation to generation.
- Social organization is based on hierarchy.
- Individuals identify with primary groups, and kinship relations dominate social interactions.
- People are generally conservative.
- The economy is simple, and economic productivity above subsistence is low.
- Mythical thought predominates in society.
- However, this traditional description no longer fully captures the totality of contemporary Indian society.
Source of Social Change: Endogenous and Exogenous
- A popular way to look at change is through endogenous and exogenous sources.
- Endogenous factors explain changes within the system itself, while exogenous factors refer to changes from outside the system.
- Orthogenetic changes are explained through endogenous factors, while heterogenetic changes are explained through exogenous factors.
- Civilization or social structure grows in two stages: Orthogenetic (internal growth) and Heterogenetic (external influences).
- Change in culture typically progresses from a folk or peasant structure to an urban cultural structure and social organization.
- Urban elites often view their traditions as ‘superstitions’ compared to rural beliefs.
- Redfield described India’s little traditions as polytheistic, magic-oriented, and unphilosophical.
- Differentiation between great traditions and little traditions:
- Great traditions are mentioned in original religious texts and epics, wide-ranging, and national in scope. These are linked to the elite, reflective urban class, organized with clear norms and rituals. They are transmitted through texts.
- Little traditions are oral, localized, and associated with rural, unlettered, folk, tribal, or peasant populations. These are unorganized, haphazard, and ambiguous, transmitted orally.
- An example of the evolution of great traditions: the Ramayana, originally composed in Prakrit by Rishi Valmiki, later recomposed by Tulsidasa in a North Indian Hindi dialect, spread by wanderers, singers, and mendicants. Despite regional variations, the original Avadhi dialect of Tulsidasa’s poetry remains influential.
- The flow between great and little traditions has been a common process in Indian civilization, with the flow from great to little being more pronounced.
- Despite the dominance of great traditions, there is periodic revival and interest in folk traditions among the urban elite, such as in rural dress, folksongs, folk theatre (e.g., nautanki), and religio-magical practices (e.g., hanging painted earthen pots).
- Great and little traditions are not strictly separated by a rural-urban divide. Both exist in villages and cities, albeit in different forms.
- The inspiration for great traditions is partially drawn from little traditions from which the elite has originated.
- Both great traditions and little traditions are incomplete on their own, and there is no inherent clash between them.
- Mandelbaum describes the great tradition as a convenient abstraction that is not followed purely in its literary form by the general population, either in villages or cities.
- S.C. Dube challenges the static definition of great tradition, suggesting that the process of interchange between greatand little traditions is dynamic and continuous.
- Redfield acknowledges that the great tradition is always changing, expanding, and evolving, absorbing new elements and losing old ones.
- Yogendra Singh (1973) critiques the classification of traditions as ad hoc and argues that multiple classification attempts suffer from limitations.
- Traditions do not function in isolation; they influence each other significantly, and their dynamic interaction must be studied to understand contemporary Indian culture.
- Cultural continuity in India is maintained through the coexistence of different types of traditions. For example, Hindusrespecting and worshipping at the mazar of Sufi saints does not negate their Hindutva.
- The presence of Muslim musicians in Shastriya Sangeet exemplifies the continuity in Indian culture despite religious differences.
- Magic and medicine coexist in India, with magic being part of little traditions and formal medicine (like Ayurvedaor modern allopathy) being textual. Both are used in different situations.
- The great traditions of the urban world have not displaced the little traditions of the village; instead, there is interaction and fusion between the two.
- Modernization does not lead to the displacement of tradition; rather, it results in the modernization of tradition.