UNDERSTANDING SOCIETY€¦ · children’s life at school must be linked to their life outside the...

UNDERSTANDING SOCIETY

TEXTBOOK FOR CLASS XI

2018-19

2018-19

UNDERSTANDING SOCIETY

TEXTBOOK FOR CLASS XI

2018-19

First EditionAugust 2006 Ashvin 1927

ReprintedNovember 2006 Kartika 1928

December 2007 Agrahayana 1929

June 2009 Asadha 1931

January 2010 Magha 1931


August 2012 Shravana 1934

November 2013 Kartika 1935


December 2015 Pausa 1937

December 2016 Pausa 1938

January 2018 Pausa 1939

PD 50T HK

© National Council of EducationalResearch and Training, 2006

`̀̀̀̀ 45.00

Printed on 80 GSM paper with

NCERT watermark

Published at the Publication Divisionby the Secretary, National Council ofEducational Research and Training, SriAurobindo Marg, New Delhi 110 016and printed at SG Print PacksPrivate Limited, F-478, Sector-63,Noida-201 301 (U.P.)

ISBN 81-7450-111-6

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

q No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval

system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,

mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior

permission of the publisher.

q This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of

trade, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise disposed of without

the publisher’s consent, in any form of binding or cover other than

that in which it is published.

q The correct price of this publication is the price printed on this page,

Any revised price indicated by a rubber stamp or by a sticker or by any

other means is incorrect and should be unacceptable.

Publication Team

Head, Publication : M. Siraj Anwar

Division

Chief Editor : Shveta Uppal

Chief Business : Gautam Ganguly

Manager

Chief Production : Arun Chitkara

Officer (Incharge)

Editor : R.N. Bhardwaj

Production Assistant : Mukesh Gaur

CoverAmit Srivastava

OFFICES OF THE PUBLICATION

DIVISION, NCERT

NCERT Campus

Sri Aurobindo Marg

New Delhi 110 016 Phone : 011-26562708

108, 100 Feet Road

Hosdakere Halli Extension

Banashankari III Stage

Bengaluru 560 085 Phone : 080-26725740

Navjivan Trust Building

P.O.Navjivan

Ahmedabad 380 014 Phone : 079-27541446

CWC Campus

Opp. Dhankal Bus Stop

Panihati

Kolkata 700 114 Phone : 033-25530454

CWC Complex

Maligaon

Guwahati 781 021 Phone : 0361-2674869

2018-19

FOREWORD

The National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005, recommends thatchildren’s life at school must be linked to their life outside the school. Thisprinciple marks a departure from the legacy of bookish learning whichcontinues to shape our system and causes a gap between the school, homeand community. The syllabi and textbooks developed on the basis of NCFsignify an attempt to implement this basic idea. They also attempt todiscourage rote learning and the maintenance of sharp boundaries betweendifferent subject areas. We hope these measures will take us significantlyfurther in the direction of a child-centred system of education outlined inthe National Policy on Education (1986).

The success of this effort depends on the steps that school principalsand teachers will take to encourage children to reflect on their own learningand to pursue imaginative activities and questions. We must recognise that,given space, time and freedom, children generate new knowledge byengaging with the information passed on to them by adults. Treating theprescribed textbook as the sole basis of examination is one of the keyreasons why other resources and sites of learning are ignored. Inculcatingcreativity and initiative is possible if we perceive and treat children asparticipants in learning. Not as receivers of a fixed body of knowledge.

These aims imply considerable change in school routines and modeof functioning. Flexibility in the daily time-table is as necessary as rigourin implementing the annual calendar so that the required number ofteaching days are actually devoted to teaching. The methods used forteaching and evaluation will also determine how effective this textbookproves for making children’s life at school a happy experience, rather thana source of stress or boredom. Syllabus designers have tried to addressthe problem of curricular burden by restructuring and reorientingknowledge at different stages with greater considertation for childpsychology and the time available for teaching. The textbook attempts toenhance this endeavour by giving higher priority and space toopportunities for contemplation and wondering, discussion in smallgroups, and activities requiring hands-on experience.

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT)appreciates the hard work done by the textbook development committeeresponsible for this book. We wish to thank the Chairperson of the advisory

2018-19

group in Social Science, Professor Hari Vasudevan and the Chief Advisorfor this book, Professor Yogendra Singh for guiding the work of thiscommittee. Several teachers contributed to the development of thistextbook; we are grateful to their principals for making this possible. Weare indebted to the institutions and organisations which have generouslypermitted us to draw upon their resources, material and personnel. We areespecially grateful to the members of the National Monitoring Committee,appointed by the Department of Secondary and Higher Education,Ministry of Human Resource Development under the Chairpersonship ofProfessor Mrinal Miri and Professor G.P. Deshpande, for their valuable timeand contribution. As an organisation committed to systemic reform andcontinuous improvement in the quality of its products, NCERT welcomescomments and suggestions which will enable us to undertake furtherrevision and refinement.

DirectorNew Delhi National Council of Educational20 December 2005 Research and Training

vi

2018-19

TEXTBOOK DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

CHAIRPERSON, ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR SOCIAL SCIENCE TEXTBOOKS AT THE

HIGHER SECONDARY LEVEL

Hari Vasudevan, Professor, Department of History, University of Kolkata,

Kolkata

CHIEF ADVISOR

Yogendra Singh, Emeritus Professor, Centre for the Study of Social System,

Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

MEMBERS

Abha Awasthi, Professor (Retd.), Department of Sociology, LucknowUniversity, Lucknow

Amita Baviskar, Professor, Institute of Economic Growth, University of Delhi

Anjan Ghosh, Fellow, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata

Balka Dey, Programme Associate, United Nations Development

Programme, New Delhi

Disha Nawani, Professor, Gargi College, New Delhi

D.K. Sharma, Professor (Retd.), Department of Education in Social Sciences,

NCERT, New Delhi

Jitendra Prasad, Professor (Retd.), Department of Sociology, M.D.University, Rohtak

Madhu Nagla, Professor, Department of Sociology, M.D. University, Rohtak

Madhu Sharan, Project Director, Hand-in-Hand, Chennai

Maitrayee Choudhari, Professor, Centre for the Study of Social Systems,

Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Rajiv Gupta, Professor (Retd.), Department of Sociology, University ofRajasthan, Jaipur

Sarika Chandrawanshi Saju, Assistant Professor, RIE, Bhopal, NCERT,

New Delhi.

2018-19

Satish Deshpande, Professor, Department of Sociology, Delhi School ofEconomics, University of Delhi, Delhi

Vishwa Raksha, Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Jammu,Jammu

MEMBER-COORDINATOR

Manju Bhatt, Professor, Department of Education in Social Sciences,NCERT, New Delhi

viii

2018-19

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The National Council of Educational Research and Training acknowledgesKaruna Chanana, Professor (Retd.), Zakir Husain Centre for EducationStudies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Arvind Chouhan,Professor, Department of Sociology, Barkatullah University, Bhopal;Debal Singh Roy, Professor, Department of Sociology, Indira GandhiNational Open University, New Delhi; Rajesh Mishra, Professor, Departmentof Sociology, Lucknow University, Lucknow; S.M. Patnayak, Professor,

Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi, Delhi; Sudershan Gupta,Principal, Government Higher Secondary School, Paloura, Jammu;Mandeep Choudhary, PGT (Retd.), Sociology, Guru Hari Kishan PublicSchool, New Delhi; Seema Banarjee, PGT, Sociology, Laxman Public School,New Delhi; Rita Kanna, PGT (Retd.), Sociology, Delhi Public School, NewDelhi for providing their feedback and inputs.

Acknowledgements are due to Savita Sinha, Professor and Head (Retd.),Department of Education in Social Sciences for her help and support.

The Council expresses its gratitude to Press Information Bureau,Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India; V. Suresh,PGT, Zoology, Sri Vidhya Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Uttangari,Tamil Nadu; and L. Chakravarthy, Photographer, Uttangari, Tamil Nadu,for using their photographs in the textbook. Different photographs werealso provided by R.C. Das, Photographer, CIET, NCERT. Council alsoacknowledges his contribution. Some photographs were taken from thedifferent issues of Business and Economy, Business World and Business

Today magazines. The Council thanks the copyright holders and publishersof these magazines.

The Council also gratefully acknowledges the contributions ofMathew John, Proof Reader and Uttam Kumar, DTP operator and otherstaff members of the Publication Department, NCERT for their supportin bringing out this textbook.

2018-19

2018-19

A NOTE TO THE TEACHER AND STUDENTS

In the earlier book our task was to introduce sociology. We had thusdiscussed the emergence of sociology, the key concerns of the discipline,its tools and methods of studying society. A central concern of sociology inits attempt to understand society was to understand the relationshipbetween the individual and society. To what extent is the individual free toact and to what extent is the individual constrained?

In this book we seek to understand this relationship better by exploringthe concepts of social structure, social stratification and social processes.We try and understand how groups and individuals are located within thesocial structure. And how they act and initiate social processes. How dothey cooperate, compete and conflict? Why do they cooperate, compete andconflict differently in different kinds of society? Proceeding with the basicquestioning approach of sociology dealt with in the earlier book we do notsee these processes as natural and unchanging. But as socially constituted.We do not accept a naturalist explanation that may suggest that humanbeings are ‘naturally’ competitive or ‘naturally’ prone to conflict.

The concepts social structure and social processes draw attention tothe fact that society is marked both by order and change. Some things remainthe same. Some things change. A look at order and change in rural and urbansocieties help us look at these continuities and changes better.

We then proceed further to look at the fundamental relationship betweensociety and the environment. And drawing from contemporarydevelopments, attempt a sociological understanding of our environment.

In the earlier book we had dealt with the emergence of sociology and itsattempt to understand modernity. Here, we are introduced to some of thekey concepts that western and Indian thinkers developed to understandthe structures and processes of modern societies. The idea is not to dealexhaustively with all their ideas, which would be impossible within the timeand space available. But to focus on only some aspect of their work andhopefully communicate some sense of the richness of the ideas that thethinkers were engaging with. For instance we look at Karl Marx’s ideas onclass conflict, Emile Durkheim’s ideas on division of labour and Max Weber’son bureaucracy. Likewise we look at G.S. Ghurye’s ideas on race and caste,D.P. Mukerji’s ideas on tradition and change and A.R. Desai’s on the stateand M.N. Srinivas’ on the village.

2018-19

In keeping with the questioning spirit of sociology, this book like theearlier one continuously engages with the reader to think and reflect, torelate what is happening to society and to us as individuals. The activitiesbuilt into the text are therefore an intrinsic part of the book. The text andactivities constitute an integrative whole. One cannot be done without theother. For the objective here is not just to provide ready made informationto be learnt but to understand society. The dates that mark the life and worksof the thinkers have been included only to provide a broad sense of thehistorical context of the thinkers.

This book tries to be interactive and introduces various activities thatmay help students engage with understanding society in a live manner.However, the most exciting and innovative part rests with the teachers andstudents. They will perhaps be able to introduce far more apt activities andexamples. Indeed the idea is to initiate the interactive debate. This is just abeginning. And much of the most exciting learning process will take placein the classroom. Students and teachers will perhaps think of far betterways, activities and examples. And suggest how textbooks can be bettered.

Maitrayee ChaudhariProfessor,

Department of Education in Social Sciences, NCERT, New Delhi

Manju BhattProfessor,

Department of Educationin Social Sciences, NCERT, New Delhi

xii

2018-19

CONTENTS

FOREWORD (v)

A NOTE TO THE TEACHER AND STUDENTS (xi)

1. SOCIAL STRUCTURE, STRATIFICATION AND 1SOCIAL PROCESSES IN SOCIETY

2. SOCIAL CHANGE AND SOCIAL ORDER 22IN RURAL AND URBAN SOCIETY

3. ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY 50

4. INTRODUCING WESTERN SOCIOLOGISTS 66

5. INDIAN SOCIOLOGISTS 83

2018-19

Constitution of India

Fundamental Duties

It shall be the duty of every citizen of India —

(a) to abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the

National Flag and the National Anthem;

(b) to cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle

for freedom;

(c) to uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India;

(d) to defend the country and render national service when called upon to

do so;

(e) to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all

the people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or

sectional diversities; to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of

women;

(f) to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture;

(g) to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes,

rivers, wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures;

(h) to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and

reform;

(i) to safeguard public property and to abjure violence;

(j) to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective

activity so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour

and achievement;

*(k) who is a parent or guardian, to provide opportunities for education to

his child or, as the case may be, ward between the age of six and

fourteen years.

Note: The Article 51A containing Fundamental Duties was inserted by the Constitution

(42nd Amendment) Act, 1976 (with effect from 3 January 1977).

*(k) was inserted by the Constitution (86th Amendment) Act, 2002 (with effect from

1 April 2010).

Part IV A (Article 51 A)

2018-19

leisure opportunities s/he avails, thehealth access s/he has, i.e. her/hislifestyle in general. As in the case ofsocial structure, social stratificationconstrains individual action.

One of the central concerns of thesociological perspective has been tounderstand the dialectical relationshipbetween the individual and society. Youwill recall C.Wright Mill’s elaboration ofthe sociological imagination that seeksto unfold the interplay between anindividual’s biography and society’shistory. It is towards understandingthis dialectical relationship between thesociety and individual that we need todiscuss the three central concepts ofstructure, stratification and socialprocesses in this chapter. In the nextfew chapters we then move on to howsocial structure in rural and urbansocieties are different, to broaderrelationships between environment andsociety. In the last two chapters we lookat western social thinkers and Indiansociologists and their writings thatwould help us further understand theideas of social structure, stratificationas well as social processes.

CHAPTER 1

SOCIAL STRUCTURE, STRATIFICATION AND SOCIAL

PROCESSES IN SOCIETY

INTRODUCTION

You will recall that the earlier bookIntroducing Sociology, Class XI(NCERT, 2006) had begun with adiscussion on the relationship betweenpersonal problems and social issues.We also saw how individuals arelocated within collectivities such asgroups, classes, gender, castes andtribes. Indeed each of you, is a memberof not just one kind of collectivity, butmany overlapping ones. For instance,you are a member of your own peergroup, your family and kin, your classand gender, your country and region.Each individual thus has a specificlocation in the social structure andsocial stratification system (see pages28-35 in Introducing Sociology). Thisalso implies that they have differentlevels and types of access to socialresources. In other words the choicesan individual has in life in terms ofthe school s/he goes to — or if s/hegoes to school at all — would dependon the social stratum that s/he belongsto. Likewise with the clothes s/he getsto wear, the food s/he consumes, the

2018-19

2 UNDERSTANDING SOCIETY

regularities that the concept of socialstructure refers. Upto a point, it ishelpful to think of the structuralcharacteristics of societies asresembling the structure of a building.A building has walls, a floor and a roof,which together give it a particular‘shape’ or form (Giddens 2004: 667).

But the metaphor can be a verymisleading one if applied too strictly.Social structures are made up ofhuman actions and relationships.What gives these their patterning istheir repetition across periods of timeand distances of space. Thus, the ideasof social reproduction and socialstructure are very closely related to oneanother in sociological analysis. Forexample, consider a school and afamily structure. In a school certainways of behaving are repeated over theyears and become institutions. Forinstance admission procedures, codesof conduct, annual functions, dailyassemblies and in some cases evenschool anthems. Likewise in familiescertain ways of behaving, marriagepractices, notions of relationships,duties and expectations are set. Evenas old members of the family or schoolmay pass away and new membersenter, the institution goes on. Yet wealso know that changes do take placewithin the family and in schools.

The above discussion and activityshould help us understand humansocieties as buildings that are at everymoment being reconstructed by thevery bricks that compose them. For aswe saw for ourselves human beings inschools or families do bring changes

The central question that thischapter seeks to discuss is to whatextent the individual constrained by,and to what extent s/he is free of, thesocial structure? To what extent doesone’s position in society or location inthe stratification system governindividual choice? Do social structureand social stratification influence themanner people act? Do they shape theway individuals cooperate, competeand conflict with each other?

In this chapter we deal briefly withthe terms social structure and socialstratification. You have alreadydiscussed social stratification in somedetail in Chapter 2 of the earlierbook Introducing Sociology, Class XI(NCERT, 2006). We then move on tofocus on three social processes namely;cooperation, competition and conflict.In dealing with each of these processeswe shall try and see how social structureand stratification impinge themselves onthe social processes. In other words howindividuals and groups cooperate,compete and conflict depending upontheir position within the social structureand stratification system.

SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND STRATIFICATION

The term social structure points to thefact that society is structured — i.e.,organised or arranged — in particularways. The social environments inwhich we exist do not just consist ofrandom assortments of events oractions. There are underlyingregularities, or patterns, in how peoplebehave and in the relationships theyhave with one another. It is to these

2018-19

3SOCIAL STRUCTURE, STRATIFICATION AND SOCIAL PROCESSES IN SOCIETY

Different types of buildings in rural and urban areas

2018-19


to reproduce the structure even whileintroducing changes. They cooperateat various levels in their everyday livestowards this reproduction. No less trueis the fact that they also compete witheach other, often viciously andruthlessly. The fact remains that alongwith cooperative behaviour we alsowitness serious conflict. And as weshall find later in this chapter,cooperation can be enforced andthereby serve to conceal conflict.

A major theme pursued by EmileDurkheim (and by many othersociological authors since) is that thesocieties exert social constraint overthe actions of their members.Durkheim argued that society hasprimacy over the individual person.Society is far more than the sum ofindividual acts; it has a ‘firmness’ or‘solidity’ comparable to structures inthe material environment.

Think of a person standing in aroom with several doors. The structureof the room constrains the range of his

or her possible activities. The placingof the walls and doors, for exampledefines the routes of exit and entry.Social structure, according toDurkheim, constrains our activities ina parallel way, setting limits to whatwe can do as individuals. It is ‘external’to us just as the walls of the room are.

Other social thinkers like KarlMarx would emphasise the constraintsof social structure but would at thesame time stress human creativity oragency to both reproduce and changesocial structure. Marx argued thathuman beings make history, but notas they wish to or in conditions of theirchoice, but within the constraints andpossibilities of the historical andstructural situation that they are in.

To recall the concept of social strati-fication in Chapter 2 of Introducing

Sociology, Class XI (NCERT, 2006),Social stratification refers to the

existence of structured inequalities

between groups in society, in terms

of their access to material or symbolic

Activity 1

Discuss with your grandparents and others of that generation to find out about theways in which families/schools have changed and the ways in which they haveremained the same.

Compare descriptions of families in old films/television serials/novels withcontemporary depictions.

Can you observe patterns and regularities of social behaviour in your family? Inother words can you describe the structure of your family?

Discuss with your teachers how they understand the school as a structure. Dostudents, teachers and the staff have to act in certain ways to maintain or reproducethe structure? Can you think of any changes in either your school or family? Werethese changes resisted? Who resisted them and why?

2018-19


rewards. While all societies involvesome forms of social stratification,modern societies are often marked bywide differences in wealth and power.While the most evident forms ofstratification in modern societiesinvolve class divisions, others likerace and caste, region andcommunity, tribe and gender alsocontinue to matter as bases of socialstratification.

You will recall that social structureimplied a certain patterning of socialbehaviour. Social stratification as partof the broader social structure is

likewise characterised by a certainpattern of inequality. Inequality is notsomething which is randomlydistributed between individuals insociety. It is systematically linked tomembership in different kinds of socialgroups. Members of a given group willhave features in common, and if theyare in a superior position they willusually see to it that their privilegedposition is passed on to their children.The concept of stratification, then,refers to the idea that society is dividedinto a patterned structure of unequalgroups, and usually implies that thisstructure tends to persist acrossgenerations (Jayaram 1987:22).

It is necessary to distinguishbetween different advantages whichcan be distributed unequally. Thereare three basic forms of advantagewhich privileged groups may enjoy:

(i) Life Chances: All those materialadvantages which improve thequality of life of the recipient — this

This point of view is expressed by Durkheim in his famous statement: When Iperform my duties as a brother, a husband or a citizen and carry out thecommitments I have entered into, I fulfil my obligations which are defined in lawand custom and which are external to myself and my actions…Similarly, the believerhas discovered from birth, ready fashioned, the beliefs and practices of his religiouslife; if they existed before he did, it follows that they exist outside him. The systemsof signs that I employ to express my thoughts, the monetary system I use to paymy debts, the credit instruments I utilise in my commercial relationships, thepractices I follow in my profession, etc. all function independently of the use Imake of them. Considering in turn each member of society, the following remarkscould be made for every single one of them.

Source: Durkheim, Emile, 1933, The Division of Labour in Society, pp.50-1, A FreePress Paperback, The MacMillan Company, New York.

Activity 2

Think of examples that reveal bothhow human beings are constrained bysocial structure and also of exampleswhere individuals defy social structureand transform it. Recall ourdiscussion on socialisation inIntroducing Sociology (pages 78-79).

2018-19


may include not only economicadvantages of wealth and income,but also benefits such as health,job security and recreation.

(ii) Social Status: Prestige or highstanding in the eyes of othermembers of the society.

(iii) Political Influence: The ability of onegroup to dominate others, or tohave preponderant influence overdecision-making, or to benefitadvantageously from decisions.

The above discussion on the threesocial processes will repeatedly drawattention to the manner that differentbases of social stratification likegender or class constrain socialprocesses. The opportunities andresources available to individuals andgroups to engage in competition,cooperation or conflict are shaped bysocial structure and socialstratification. At the same time,humans do act to modify the structureand system of stratification that exists.

TWO WAYS OF UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL

PROCESSES IN SOCIOLOGY

In the earlier book Introducing

Sociology, Class XI (NCERT, 2006) youhave seen the limitations of commonsense knowledge. The problem is notthat commonsense knowledge isnecessarily false, but that it isunexamined and taken for granted. Bycontrast, the sociological perspectivequestions everything and acceptsnothing as a given. It would thereforenot rest content with an explanationwhich suggests that humans compete

or cooperate or conflict as the case maybe because it is human nature to doso. The assumption behind suchexplanations is that there is somethingintrinsic and universal in humannature that accounts for theseprocesses. However, as we have seenearlier, sociology is not satisfied witheither psychological or naturalistexplanations (see pages 7-8 ofIntroducing Sociology. Sociology seeksto explain these processes ofcooperation, competition and conflictin terms of the actual social structureof society.

Activity 3

Think of examples of cooperation,competition and conflict in youreveryday life

In Introducing Sociology wediscussed how there are differences andplural understandings of society (pages24-25, 36). We saw how functionalist

and conflict perspectives varied in theirunderstanding of different institutions,be it the family, the economy or socialstratification and social control. Notsurprisingly therefore, these twoperspectives seek to understand theseprocesses a bit differently. But both KarlMarx (usually associated with a conflictperspective) and Emile Durkheim(usually identified with a functionalistperspective) presume that humanbeings have to cooperate to meet theirbasic needs, and to produce andreproduce themselves and their world.

The conflict perspective emphasiseshow these forms of cooperation

2018-19


Different types of processes

2018-19


refer to the fulfilment of the broadestconditions which are necessary for asystem’s existence (and whichtherefore keep it alive and prevent itsdestruction) such as:

(i) The socialisation of new members;

(ii) A shared system of communication;

(iii) Methods of assigning individualsto roles.

You are well aware how thefunctionalist perspective rests upon theassumption that different parts ororgans of society have a function or roleto play for the broader maintenanceand functioning of the whole society.Seen from this perspective, cooperation,competition and conflict can be seenas universal features of all societies,explained as the result of the inevitableinteractions among humans living insociety and pursuing their ends. Sincethe focus is on system sustenance,

changed from one historical society toanother. For instance, it wouldrecognise that in simple societieswhere no surplus was produced, therewas cooperation between individualsand groups who were not divided onclass or caste or race lines. But insocieties where surplus is produced —whether feudal or capitalist — thedominant class appropriates thesurplus and cooperation wouldnecessarily involve potential conflictand competition. The conflict view thusemphasises that groups andindividuals are placed differentiallyand unequally within the system ofproduction relations. Thus, the factoryowner and the factory worker docooperate in their everyday work. Buta certain conflict of interests woulddefine their relationship.

The understanding that informs theconflict perspective is that in societiesdivided by caste, or class or patriarchy,some groups are disadvantaged anddiscriminated against. Furthermore thedominant groups sustain this unequalorder by a series of cultural norms, andoften coercion or even violence. As youwill see in the next paragraphs, it isnot that the functionalist perspectivefails to appreciate the role of suchnorms or sanctions. But it understandstheir function in terms of the societyas a whole, and not in terms of thedominant sections who control society.

The functionalist perspective ismainly concerned with the ‘systemrequirements’ of society — certainfunctional imperatives, functionalrequisites and prerequisites. These

Babul Mora. Naihar Chuto hi jai

Fears of the Natal home is left behind

Babul ki dua-ein leti ja

Ja tujhko sukhi sansar mile

Maike ki kabhi na yaad aaye

Sasural me itna pyar mile

Take your father’s blessings/prayeras you go;

Go, and (may you) get a happyhousehold;

May you never be reminded of yourmother’s home;

(Because of) all the love you receive

At your in-laws’ place.

(Basu 2001: 128)

2018-19


Activity 4

Discuss whether women are cooperating, or refusing to engage in conflict orcompetition because of a range of normative compulsions. Are they cooperatingwith the given norm of male inheritance because of the fear of losing the affectionof their brothers if they behave otherwise? The song in the box on the previouspage is specific to a region, but evokes the more general fears of natalabandonment for women in a patrilineal society.

Bride leaving for groom’s house in a ‘Doli’

competition and conflict is looked atwith the understanding that in mostcases they tend to get resolved withouttoo much distress, and that they mayeven help society in various ways.

Sociological studies have alsoshown how norms and patterns ofsocialisation often ensure that aparticular social order persists, eventhough it is skewed in the interests ofone section. In other words, the

relationship between cooperation,

competition and conflict is often complex

and not easily separable.

In order to understand howcooperation may entail conflict, and thedifference between ‘enforced’ and‘voluntary’ cooperation, let us look at

the very contentious issue of women’sright to property in their natal family.A study was conducted among differentsections of society to understand theattitude towards taking natal property(see pages 41- 46 of Introducing

Sociology). A significant number ofwomen (41.7 per cent) evoked thetheme of a daughter’s love and love fora daughter when speaking about theirrights to property. But they emphasisedapprehension rather than affection bysaying they would not claim full or anyshare of natal property because theywere afraid this would sour relationswith their brothers or cause theirbrothers’ wives to hate them, and thatas a result they would no longer be

2018-19


welcome in their natal homes. Thisattitude represents one of the dominantmetaphors mediating women’s refusalof property… A woman demanding hershare is the greedy shrew or ‘hak lene

wali’. There was also a close connectionbetween these feelings and theapparently obverse ones of the desireto continue to be part of the natal familyby actively contributing to its prosperityor being available to deal with its crises.

Activity 2 would enable you toappreciate how apparently cooperativebehaviour can also be seen as aproduct of deep conflicts in society. Butwhen these conflicts are not expressedopenly or challenged, the impressionremains that there is no conflict, butonly cooperation. A functionalist viewoften uses the term accommodation toexplain situations such as the onedescribed above, where women wouldprefer not to claim property rights intheir natal home. It would be seen asan effort to compromise and co-existdespite conflict.

Activity 5

Think of other kinds of socialbehaviour which may appear as co-operative but may conceal deeperconflicts of society.

COOPERATION AND DIVISION OF LABOUR

The idea of cooperation rests on certainassumptions about human behaviour.It is argued that without humancooperation it would be difficult forhuman life to survive. Further it isargued that even in the animal world

we witness cooperation, whether theybe ants or bees or mammals.Comparison with the animal worldshould however be done carefully. Welook at two very different theoreticaltraditions in sociology to illustrate thepoint, those represented by EmileDurkheim and Karl Marx.

Sociology for the most part did notagree with the assumption that humannature is necessarily nasty andbrutish. Emile Durkheim arguesagainst a vision of “primitive humanitywhose hunger and thirst, always badlysatisfied, were their only passions”.Instead he argued:

They overlook the essential element

of moral life, that is, the moderating

influence that society exercises over

its members, which tempers and

neutralises the brutal action of the

struggle for existence and selection.

Wherever there are societies, there

is altruism, because there is

solidarity. Thus, we find altruism

from the beginning of humanity and

even in truly intemperate form.

(Durkheim 1933)

For Durkheim solidarity, the moralforce of society, is fundamental for ourunderstanding of cooperation andthereby the functioning of society. Therole of division of labour — whichimplies cooperation — is precisely tofulfill certain needs of society. Thedivision of labour is at the same timea law of nature and also a moral ruleof human conduct.

Durkheim distinguished betweenmechanical and organic solidarity that

2018-19


characterised pre-industrial andcomplex industrial societies respectively.Both are forms of cooperation in

society. Mechanical solidarity is theform of cohesion that is basedfundamentally on sameness. Most of

the members of such societies live verysimilar lives, with little specialisationor division of labour beyond that

associated with age and sex. Membersfeel bonded together essentially bytheir shared beliefs and sentiments,

their common conscience andconsciousness. Organic solidarity isthat form of social cohesion that is

based on division of labour and theresulting interdependence of membersof society. As people become more

specialised, they also become moredependent upon each other. A familyengaged in subsistence farming may

survive with little or no help fromsimilar homesteaders. But specialisedworkers in a garment or a car

manufacturing factory cannot survivewithout a host of other specialisedworkers supplying their basic needs.

Karl Marx too distinguishes humanlife from animal life. While Durkheimemphasised altruism and solidarity as

distinctive of the human world, Marxemphasised consciousness. He writes:

Men can be distinguished fromanimals by consciousness, by religionor anything else you like. Theythemselves begin to distinguishthemselves from animals as soon asthey begin to produce their means ofsubsistence, a step which isconditioned by their physicalorganisation. By producing their

means of subsistence men areindirectly producing their material life(Marx 1972:37).

The above quote from Marx mayappear difficult but will help usunderstand how cooperation inhuman life is dif ferent fromcooperation in animal life. For humansnot only adjust and accommodate tocooperate but also alter society in thatprocess. For example, men and womenover the ages had to adjust to naturalconstraints. Various technologicalinnovations over time not onlytransformed human life but in somesense nature too. Humans incooperating thus do not passivelyadjust and accommodate but alsochange the natural or social world towhich they adjust. We had discussedin the Chapter on Culture andSocialisation in earlier book,Introducing Sociology how Indians hadto adjust and accommodate and co-operate with the English languagebecause of our experience with BritishColonialism. But also how in thatprocess Hinglish has emerged as aliving social entity (page 72).

While both Durkheim from afunctionalist view and Marx from aconflict perspective emphasisecooperation, they also differ. For Marxcooperation is not voluntary in asociety where class exists. He argues,“The social power, i.e., the multipliedproductive force, which arises throughthe cooperation of different individualsas it is caused by the division of labour,appears to these individuals, sincetheir cooperation is not voluntary but

2018-19


has come about naturally, not as theirown united power, but as an alien forceexisting outside them…” (Marx 1972:53). Marx used the term alienation torefer to the loss of control on the partof workers over the concrete contentof labour, and over the products oftheir labour. In other words, workerslose control over how to organise theirown work; and they lose control overthe fruits of their labour. Contrast, forexample, the feeling of fulfillment andcreativity of a weaver or potter orironsmith with that of a workerinvolved in a factory whose sole taskmay be to pull a lever or press a buttonthroughout the day. Cooperation insuch a situation would be enforced.

COMPETITION AS AN IDEA AND PRACTICE

As in the case of cooperation,discussions on the concept of

competition often proceed with the ideathat competition is universal andnatural. But going back to ourdiscussion on how sociologicalexplanation is dif ferent fromnaturalistic ones, it is important tounderstand competition as a socialentity that emerges and becomesdominant in society at a particularhistorical point of time. In thecontemporary period it is apredominant idea and often we find itdifficult to think that there can be anysociety where competition is not aguiding force.

An anecdote of a school teacher whorecounted her experience with childrenin a remote area in Africa draws

attention to the fact that competitionitself has to be explained sociologicallyand not as a natural phenomena. Theanecdote refers to the teacher’sassumption that the children willnaturally rejoice at the idea of acompetitive race where the winnerwould get a chocolate as a prize. To hersurprise, her suggestion not only didnot evoke any enthusiasm but insteadseemed to cause considerable anxietyand distress. On probing further theyexpress their distaste for a game wherethere would be ‘winners’ and ‘losers’. Thiswent against their idea of fun, whichmeant for them a necessarily cooperativeand collective experience, and not acompetitive one where the rewardsnecessarily exclude some and rewardone or few.

In the contemporary worldhowever competition is the dominantnorm and practice. Classicalsociological thinkers such as EmileDurkheim and Karl Marx have notedthe growth of individualism and

competition respectively in modernsocieties. Both developments areintrinsic to the way modern capitalistsociety functions. The stress is ongreater efficiency and greater profitmaximisation. The underlyingassumptions of capitalism are:

(i) expansion of trade;

(ii) division of labour;

(iii) specialisation; and

(iv) hence rising productivity.

And these processes of self-sustaining growth are fuelled by the

2018-19


central theme of capitalism: rationalindividuals in free competition in themarketplace, each striving tomaximise profits.

The ideology of competition is thedominant ideology in capitalism. Thelogic of this ideology is that the marketoperates in a manner that ensuresgreatest efficiency. For examplecompetition ensures that the mostefficient firm survives. Competitionensures that the students with highermarks or best studies get admissioninto prestigious colleges. And then getthe best jobs. In all cases the “best”refers to that which ensures thegreatest material rewards.

Activity 6

India has recently witnessed intensedebates on the government’s decisionto ensure 27 per cent reservation forOBCs. Collect the differentarguments for and against thisproposal that have been put forwardin newspapers, magazines andtelevision programmes.

Collect information about thedrop-out rate in schools, and primaryschools in particular (see pages 57-59 in the earlier book)

Given that mostly lower castestudents drop-out of school, andmost higher educational institutionsare dominated by the upper castes,discuss the concepts of cooperation,competition and conflict in theabove context.

Views that humans naturally liketo compete has to be understood

critically like all other naturalistexplanations (see page 8 of earlierbook). Competition as a desirable valueflourished with the onset of capitalism.Read the extracts in the box anddiscuss.

Competition, and the whole laissez-faire economy of 19th centurycapitalism, may have been importantin promoting economic growth. Theexceptionally rapid development of theAmerican economy may beattributable to the greater scope ofcompetition in the United States. Butstill we cannot produce any exactcorrelations between the extent ofcompetition, or the intensity of thecompetitive spirit, and the rate ofeconomic growth in different societies.And on the other hand, there aregrounds for supposing thatcompetition has other less welcomeeffects (Bottomore 1975: 174-5).

Liberals like J.S. Mill felt that theeffects of competition were generallyharmful. However, he felt that thoughmodern competition ‘is described asthe fight of all against all, but at thesame time it is the fight for all’; this inthe sense that economic competitionis directed toward maximum outputat minimum cost. Furthermore, ‘giventhe breadth and individualism ofsociety, many kinds of interest, whicheventually hold the group togetherthroughout its members, seem tocome alive and stay alive only whenthe urgency and requirements of thecompetitive struggle force them uponthe individual.’

2018-19


Activity 7

Organise a debate for and against theidea that competition is a necessarygood in society and is a must fordevelopment. Draw upon schoolexperience to write an essay on themanner that competition impacts ondifferent students.

This ideology assumes thatindividuals compete on an equal basis,i.e. that all individuals are positionedequally in the competition foreducation, jobs, or resources. But asthe earlier discussions on stratificationor inequality showed, individuals areplaced differentially in society. If thegreater number of children in India donot go to school or drop-out soonerrather than later, then they remain outof the competition entirely.

Activity 8

Identify different occasions whenindividuals have to compete in oursociety. Begin with admission toschool onwards through the differentstages of life.

CONFLICT AND COOPERATION

The term conflict implies clash ofinterests. We have already seen howconflict theorists believe that scarcityof resources in society producesconflict as groups struggle to gainaccess to and control over thoseresources. The bases of conflict vary.It could be class or caste, tribe orgender, ethnicity or religiouscommunity. As young students you

are well aware of the range of conflictsthat exist in society. The scale andnature of different conflicts that occurare however different.

Activity 9

Think of the different kinds of

conflicts that exist in the world today.

At the widest level there are conflicts

between nations and blocs of nations.

Many kinds of conflicts also exist

within nations. Make a list of them

and then discuss in what ways they

are similar and in what ways

different.

A widely held commonsenseperception is that conflicts in societyare new. Sociologists have drawnattention to the fact that conflictschange in nature and form at differentstages of social development. Butconflicts have always been part of anysociety. Social change and greaterassertion of democratic rights bydisadvantaged and discriminatedgroups make the conflict more visible.But this does not mean that the causesfor conflict did not exist earlier. Thequote in the box emphasises this.

Developing countries are todayarenas for conflict between the oldand the new. The old order is nolonger able to meet the new forces,nor the new wants and aspirationsof the people, but neither is itmoribund — in fact, it is still verymuch alive. The conflict producesmuch unseemly argument, discord,confusion, and on occasion, even

2018-19


bloodshed. Under the circumstances,it is tempting for the sociologist tolook to the good old peaceful days insheer nostalgia. But a moment’sreflection should convince him thatthe old order was not conflict-free andthat it perpetrated inhuman crueltieson vast sections of the population. Atheoretical approach that regardsconflict as abnormal, or that investsequilibrium with a special value in thename of science, can be a handicapin studying developing societies.

Source: Srinivas, M.N., 1972, SocialChange in Modern India, pp.159-160,

Orient Longman, New Delhi.

It is also important to understandthat conflict appears as a discord orovert clash only when it is openly ex-pressed. For example, the existence ofa peasant movement is an overt ex-pression of a deep rooted conflict overland resources. But the absence of amovement does not imply the absenceof a conflict. Hence, this chapter hasemphasised the relationship betweenconflict, involuntary cooperation andalso resistance.

Let us examine some of theconflicts that exist in society, and alsothe close relationship that existsbetween competition, cooperation andconflict. We just take two instanceshere. The first is the family andhousehold. The second is that of landbased conflict.

Traditionally the family andhousehold were often seen asharmonious units where cooperationwas the dominant process andaltruism the driving principle of

human behaviour. The last threedecades have seen a great deal ofquestioning of this assumption byfeminist analysis. Scholars such asAmartya Sen have noted the possibilityof enforced cooperation.

Not only do the different parties have

much to gain from cooperation; their

individual activities have to take the

form of being overtly cooperative, even

when substantial conflicts exist…

Although serious conflicts of interests

may be involved in the choice of ‘social

technology’, the nature of the family

organisation requires that these

conflicts be moulded in a general

format of cooperation, with conflicts

treated as aberrations or deviant

behaviour (Sen 1990:147).

Since conflict is often not overtlyexpressed, it has been found thatsubaltern or subordinate sections,whether women in households orpeasants in agrarian societies, developdifferent strategies to cope with conflictand ensure cooperation. Findings ofmany sociological studies seem tosuggest that covert conflict and overtcooperation is common. The extractbelow draws from many studies onwomen’s behaviour and interactionwithin households.

Material pressures and incentives tocooperate extend to distributionand there is little evidence of overtconflict over distributional processes.Instead there is a hierarchy ofdecision-making, needs and priorities(associated with age, gender andlifecycle), a hierarchy to which bothmen and women appear to subscribe.

2018-19


Thus, women appear to acquiesceto — and indeed actively perpetuate— discriminatory practices in intra-household distribution in order toassure their own longer -termsecurity. Denied access to extra-household relationships andresources, it is in their materialinterests to subscribe to the generalson-preference which characterisesthis culture, and they invest in agreat deal of ‘selfless’ devotion inorder to win their sons as allies andinsurance against an uncertainfuture. ‘Maternal altruism’ in thenorthern Indian plain is likely to bebiased towards sons and can beseen as women’s response topatriarchal risk. Women are notentirely powerless, of course, buttheir subversion of male decision-making power tends to be covert.The use of trusted allies (relativesor neighbours) to conduct smallbusinesses on their behalf, thesecret lending and borrowing ofmoney, and negotiations around themeaning of gender ideologies of

Land Conflicts

Harbaksh, a Rajput had borrowed Rs100 from Nathu Ahir (Patel) in the year 1956,

by mortgaging (informally) 2 acres of land. In the same year Harbaksh died and

Ganpat, his successor, claimed the land back in 1958 and he offered Rs 200.

Nathu refused to return the land to Ganpat. Ganpat could not take to legal

proceedings as this exchange was not codified in the revenue records. Under the

circumstances Ganpat had resorted to violence and forcefully cultivated the land

in 1959 (one year after Gramdan). Ganpat, being a police constable, could influence

the police officials. When the Patel went to Phulera (the police thana headquarters)

he was taken to the police station and was forced to agree that he will give the

land back to Ganpat. Later a meeting of the villagers was convened when the

money was given to Patel and Ganpat received the land back.

Source: Oommen, T.K., 1972: Charisma, Stability and Change; An Analysis of

Bhoodan-Gramdan Movement in India, p.84. Thompson Press, New Delhi.

purdah and motherhood, are someof the strategies by which womenhave resisted male power (Abdullahand Zeidenstein, 1982; White,1992). That their resistance takesthis clandestine form reflects theirlack of options outside householdcooperation and the concomitanthigh risks associated with open

conflict (Kabeer 1996:129).

In keeping with the sociologicaltradition of questioning taken forgranted commonsense assumptions,this chapter has critically examined theprocesses of cooperation, competitionand conflict. The sociological approachdoes not see these processes as ‘natural’.It further relates them to other socialdevelopments. In the followingparagraphs you will read from asociological study done on land relationsand the Bhoodan-Gramdan movementin India. Read box and see howcooperation in society can besociologically related to technology andthe economic arrangements ofproduction.

2018-19


Activity 10

Read the following account of landconflict. Identify the different socialgroups within it and notice the role

of power and access to resources.

Conclusion

The ef fort in this chapter is tounderstand the relationship betweenstructure and stratification on theone hand and the social processes ofcooperation, competition and conflicton the other. You would have noticed

that the three social processes aredifferent, yet they often co-exist,overlap and sometimes exist in aconcealed fashion, as evident in the

above discussion about forced

cooperation. We end with two

activities that report real life eventsthat help you to use your sociological

understanding to explore the manner

in which the three processes operate

for social groups that aredifferentially located in the social

structure and the stratification

system.

Activity 11

Read the report carefully and discuss the relationship between social structure,stratification and social processes. Describe how the characters Santosh and Pushpaare constrained by the social structure and stratification system. Is it possible toidentify the three social processes of cooperation, competition and conflict in theirlives? Can these marriages be seen as processes of cooperation? Can these marriagesbe seen as actions that people consciously adopt in order to survive in the competitivejob market since married couples are preferred? Is there any sign of conflict?

Outlook 8 May 2006

“Meet the Parents: Teen marriages, migrant labour and cane factories in crisis.A vicious cycle.”

The advent of technology had also reduced the necessity for cooperation. For

instance, for the operation of a Charas, an indigenous device of well irrigation, one

requires 2 pairs of bullocks and four men. An ordinary peasant cannot afford the

cost of four bullocks or an average household may not have the required manpower.

In such situations they resort to borrowing bullocks and men from other households

(kin, neighbours, friends, etc.) assuring similar services in return. But if a Charas

is replaced by a Rehat (persian wheel) for irrigation which calls for a heavier capital

investment, one needs only one pair of bullocks and one person for its operation.

The necessity of cooperation in the context of irrigation is reduced by a heavier capital

investment and an efficient technology. Thus, the level of technology in a system

may determine the need for cooperation between men and groups.

Source: Oommen, T.K., 1972, Charisma, Stability and Change; An Analysis of

Bhoodan-Gramdan Movement in India, p.88. Thompson Press, New Delhi.

2018-19


It is the same old story, only with a few twists. Santosh Shinde, 14, son of landlesslabourers who take a loan of Rs 8,000 to educate him. Now the moneylenderwants the loan to be repaid, so the cash strapped Shindes take a salary advancefrom the only man offering jobs around town, a sugarcane factory contractor.Problem is that they are just a husband, a wife and gawky boy. So the Shindeshurriedly find a bride for Santosh: another 14 year old, Pushpa, who accompaniesthem from their village in Maharashtra’s Osmanabad district to Karnataka. Theystop en route for a no-frills marriage at a temple.…There’s even a name for it, ‘gatekin’. It probably comes from the makeshift campsthese migrant labourers set up outside the factory gates in the cane-cutting season.Contractors prefer married couples to single boys as they are more likely to stay onat the factories for months.…With western Maharashtra’s cane factories — which once produced nearly a thirdof India’s sugar output — in a state of crisis, jobs for migrant labourers have dried up.Some estimates say the factories have accumulated losses of over Rs 1,900 crore, andthis year 120 of the 177 sugar factories were forced to avail of the Centre’s Rs. 1,650crore bailout package. But the trickle down has been harsher on the migrant labour,out in the fields cutting cane feverishly during the six-month-long season. Their chancesof getting jobs have become harder, and wages have plummeted.… Gangly Santosh, now 16 and sporting a straggly moustache, has just finished hisX exams while wife Pushpa took her XII exams. Pushpa, a good student, balancesher academic ambitions with caring for a one-and-a-half-year-old son. Then there’shome and labour in the fields. As she says, “My marriage was so quick, I wondersometimes — when did I get married — when did all this happen?”. Asked if herhealth has suffered, the young mother says “I try not to think about things I can’tcontrol. Instead I focus on what I can do now.” Her in-laws have said she can studyfurther only if she gets a scholarship. Otherwise, the young couple will migrate

to Mumbai to work at a construction site.

Activity 12

Read the report carefully and contrast the competition that Vikram and Nitin facewith that of Santosh and Pushpa in Activity 11.

The Week (7 May 2006) carried a special feature titled “The New Workaholics:Their Goals, Money, Risks Health”.

As the Indian economy gallops at 8 per cent, firing on all cylinders, thousandsof jobs are being created in every sphere of business resulting in changing attitudesand work styles. Young professionals want rewards instantly. Promotions must come

fast and quick. And money — exceptional salaries, perks and big increments —the prime motivator, makes the world go round. Vikram Samant, 27, who recentlyjoined a BPO, makes no bones about quitting his last job for a better salary.“Money is important but my new employers are fully aware that I’m worth everyrupee paid to me,” he reasons.

2018-19


…What is also driving young workaholics is the need to sprint up the corporate ladder

rather than climb each rung at a measured pace. “Yes, I want the next designationquickly, not when I am starting to go bald,” says Nitin, who refused to wait aroundfor the next big jump and hopped from ICICI to Standard Chartered with a promotion

and then to Optimix as zonal manager (emphasis original).

GLOSSARY

Altruism: The principle of acting to benefit others without any selfishness orself-interest.

Alienation: Marx used the term to refer to the loss of control on the part of workersover the nature of the labour task, and over the products of their labour.

Anomie: For Durkheim, a social condition where the norms guiding conduct breakdown, leaving individuals without social restraint or guidance. A situation ofnormlessness.

Capitalism: An economic system in which the means of production are privatelyowned and organised to accumulate profits within a market framework, in whichlabour is provided by waged workers.

Division of Labour: The specialisation of work tasks, by means of which differentoccupations are combined within a production system. All societies have atleast some rudimentary form of division of labour especially between the tasksallocated to men and those performed by women. With the development ofindustrialism, however, the division of labour became more complex than inany prior type of production system. In the modern world, the division of labouris international in scope.

Dominant Ideology: Shared ideas or beliefs which serve to justify the interests ofdominant groups. Such ideologies are found in all societies in which they aresystematic and engrained inequalities between groups. The concept of ideologyconnects closely with that of power, since ideological systems serve to legitimisethe differential power which groups hold.

Individualism: Doctrines or ways of thinking that focus on the autonomousindividual, rather than on the group.

Laissez-faire Liberalism: A political and economic approach based on the generalprinciple of non-interference in the economy by government and freedom for marketsand property owners.

Mechanical Solidarity: According to Durkheim, traditional cultures with a lowdivision of labour are characterised by mechanical solidarity. Because most membersof the society are involved in similar occupations, they are bound together bycommon experience and shared beliefs.

2018-19


Modernity: A term designed to encapsulate the distinctiveness, complexity anddynamism of social processes unleashed during the 18th and 19th centurieswhich mark a distinct break from traditional ways of living.

Organic Solidarity: According to Durkheim, societies characterised by organicsolidarity are held together by people’s economic interdependence and a recognitionof the importance of others’ contributions. As the division of labour becomes morecomplex, people become more and more dependent on one another, because eachperson needs goods and services that those in other occupations supply.Relationships of economic reciprocity and mutual dependency come to replaceshared beliefs in creating social consensus.

Social Constraint: A term referring to the fact that the groups and societies ofwhich we are a part exert a conditioning influence on our behaviour. Social constraintwas regarded by Durkheim as one of the distinctive properties of ‘social facts’.

Structures: Refers generally to constructed frameworks and patterns oforganisation, which in some way constrain or direct human behaviour.

EXERCISES

1. Discuss the different tasks that demand cooperation with reference toagricultural or industrial operations.

2. Is cooperation always voluntary or is it enforced? If enforced, is it sanctions oris the strength of norms that ensure cooperation? Discuss with examples.

3. Can you find illustrative examples of conflict drawn from Indian society?Discuss the causes that led to conflict in each instance.

4. Write an essay based on examples to show how conflicts get resolved.

5. Imagine a society where there is no competition. Is it possible? If not,why not?

6. Talk to your parents and elders, grandparents and their contemporaries anddiscuss whether modern society is really more competitive or conflict riddenthan it used to be before. And if you think it is, how would you explain thissociologically?

REFERENCES

ABDULLAH, T. and S. ZEIDENSTEIN. 1982. Village Men of Bangladesh: Prospects for

Change. Pergamon Press, Oxford.

BASU SRIMATI. 2001. She Comes to Take Her Rights: Indian Women, Property and

Propriety. Kali for Women, New Delhi.

2018-19


BOTTOMORE, T.B. 1975. Sociology as Social Criticism. George Allen and UnwinLtd., London

DURKHEIM EMILE. 1933. The Division of Labour in Society. A Free Press (Paperback),The MacMillan Company, New York.

JAYARAM, N. 1987. Introductory Sociology. MacMillan India Ltd, Delhi.

HALE SYLVIA, M. 1990. Controversies in Sociology: A Canadian Introduction. LongmanGroups, London.

MARX KARL and FREDERICK ENGELS. 1974. The German Ideology. Selected Works,Vol. 1. Peoples Publishing House, Moscow.

SEN AMARTYA. 1990. “Gender and Cooperative Conflicts” in Persistent Inequalities

(ed) II.Tinker, pp.123-49. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

SINGH YOGENDRA. 1973. Modernization of Indian Tradition. Thomson Press, Delhi.

SRINIVAS, M.N. 1972. Social Change in Modern India. Orient Longman, New Delhi.

OOMMEN, T.K. 1972. Charisma, Stability and Change; An Analysis of Bhoodan-

Gramdan Movement in India. Thomson Press, New Delhi.

WHITE, S.C. 1992. Arguing With the Crocodile, Gender and Class in Bangladesh,Zed Books, London.

2018-19


CHAPTER 2

SOCIAL CHANGE AND SOCIAL ORDER IN RURAL AND

URBAN SOCIETY

It is often said that change is theonly unchanging aspect of society.Anyone living in modern society doesnot need to be reminded that constantchange is among the most permanentfeatures of our society. In fact, thediscipline of sociology itself emergedas an effort to make sense of the rapidchanges that Western Europeansociety had experienced between theseventeenth and nineteenth centuries.

But though social changeseems such a common and obviousfact about modern life, it is –comparatively speaking – a very newand recent fact. It is estimated thathuman beings have existed on planet

earth for approximately 500,000 (fivelakh) years, but they have had acivilised existence for only about 6,000years. Of these civilised years, it is onlyin the last 400 years that we have seenconstant and rapid change; evenwithin these years of change, the pacehas accelerated only in the last 100years. Because the speed with whichchange happens has been increasingsteadily, it is probably true that in thelast hundred years, change has beenfaster in the last fifty years than inthe first fifty. And within the last fiftyyears, the world may have changedmore in the last twenty years than inthe first thirty…

The Clock of Human History

Human beings have existed on earth for about half a million years. Agriculture,the necessary basis of fixed settlements, is only about twelve thousand years old.Civilisations date back no more than six thousand years or so. If we were to thinkof the entire span of human existence thus far as a day (stretching from midnightto midnight), agriculture would have come into existence at 11:56 pm andcivilisations at 11:57. The development of modern societies would get underwayonly at 11:59 and 30 seconds! Yet perhaps as much change has taken place inthe last thirty seconds of this human day as in all the time leading up to it.From: Anthony Giddens,2004 Sociology, 4th edition, p.40.

2018-19

23SOCIAL CHANGE AND SOCIAL ORDER IN RURAL AND URBAN SOCIETY

Activity 1

Talk to your elders and make a listof the things in your life that: (a) didnot exist when your parents wereyour age; and (b) did not exist whenyour grandparents were your age.

Eg: Black & white/colour TV;milk in plastic bags, zip fastenerson clothes; plastic buckets; etc. –did it exist in your parents’/grandparents’ childhood?

Can you also make a list of thingsthat existed in your parents’/grandparents’, time but don’t exist

in your time?

SOCIAL CHANGE

‘Social change’ is such a general termthat it can be, and often is, used torefer to almost any kind of change notqualified by some other term, such aseconomic or political change.Sociologists have had to work hard tolimit this broad meaning in order tomake the term more specific andhence useful for social theory. At themost basic level, social change refersto changes that are significant – thatis, changes which alter the ‘underlyingstructure of an object or situation overa period of time’ (Giddens 2005:42).Thus social change does not includeany and all changes, but only big ones,changes which transform thingsfundamentally. The ‘bigness’ ofchange is measured not only by howmuch change it brings about, but alsoby the scale of the change, that is, byhow large a section of society it affects.In other words, changes have to beboth intensive and extensive – have a

big impact spread over a large sectorof society – in order to qualify as socialchange.

Even after this kind ofspecification, social change stillremains a very broad term. Attemptsto further qualify it usually try toclassify it by its sources or causes; byits nature, or the kind of impact it hason society; and by its pace or speed.

For example, evolution is the namegiven to a kind of change that takesplace slowly over a long period of time.This term was made famous by thenatural scientist Charles Darwin, whoproposed a theory of how livingorganisms evolve – or change slowlyover several centuries or even millenia,by adapting themselves to naturalcircumstances. Darwin’s theoryemphasized the idea of ‘the survival ofthe fittest’ – only those life formsmanage to survive who are bestadapted to their environment; thosethat are unable to adapt or are too slowto do so die out in the long run. Darwinsuggested that human beings evolvedfrom sea-borne life forms (or varietiesof fish) to land-based mammals,passing through various stages thehighest of which were the variousvarieties of monkeys and chimpanzeesuntil finally the homo sapiens orhuman form was evolved. AlthoughDarwin’s theory refered to naturalprocesses, it was soon adapted to thesocial world and was termed ‘socialDarwinism’, a theory that emphasisedthe importance of adaptive change. Incontrast to evolutionary change,change that occurs comparatively

2018-19


quickly, even suddenly, is sometimescalled ‘revolutionary change’. It is usedmainly in the political context, whenthe power structure of society changesvery rapidly through the overthrow ofa former ruling class or group by itschallengers. Examples include theFrench revolution (1789-93) and theSoviet or Russian revolution of 1917.But the term has also been used moregenerally to refer to sharp, sudden andtotal transformations of other kinds aswell, such as in the phrase ‘industrialrevolution’ or ‘telecommunicationsrevolution’, and so on.

Activity 2

Refer to the discussions about theFrench Revolution and the IndustrialRevolution which you have comeacross before in your textbooks.What were the major kinds of changethat each brought about? Wouldthese changes qualify to be called‘social change’? Were these changesfast enough and far reaching enoughto qualify as ‘revolutionary change’?What other kinds of social changehave you come across in your bookswhich might not qualify asrevolutionary change? Why wouldthey not qualify?

Types of change that are identifiedby their nature or impact includestructural change and changes inideas, values and beliefs. Structuralchange refers to transformations inthe structure of society, to itsinstitutions or the rules by whichthese institutions are run. (Recall thediscussion of social structure from the

previous chapter.) For example, theemergence of paper money ascurrency marked a major change inthe organisation of financial marketsand transactions. Until this changecame about, most forms of currencyinvolved precious metals like gold andsilver. The value of the coin wasdirectly linked to the value of the goldor silver it contained. By contrast, thevalue of a paper currency note has norelationship to the value of the paperit is printed on, or the cost of itsprinting. The idea behind papermoney was that a medium or meansfor facilitating the exchange of goodsand services need not itself beintrinsically valuable. As long as itrepresents values convincingly — i.e.,as long as it inspires trust — almostanything can function as money. Thisidea was the foundation for the creditmarket and helped change thestructure of banking and finance.These changes in turn producedfurther changes in the organisation ofeconomic life.

Changes in values and beliefs canalso lead to social change. Forexample, changes in the ideas andbeliefs about children and childhoodhave brought about very importantkinds of social change, there was atime when children were simplyconsidered small adults — there wasno special concept of childhood assuch, with its associated notions ofwhat was right or wrong for childrento do. As late as the 19th century forexample, it was considered good andproper that children start to work as

2018-19


soon as they were able to. Childrenwere often helping their families atwork from the age of five or six; theearly factory system depended on thelabour of children. It was during the19th and early 20th centuries thatideas about childhood as a specialstage of life gained influence. It thenbecame unthinkable for smallchildren to be at work, and manycountries passed laws banning childlabour. At the same time, thereemerged ideas about compulsoryeducation, and children weresupposed to be in school rather thanat work, and many laws were passedfor this as well. Although there are

some industries in our country thateven today depend on child labour atleast partially (such as carpet weaving,small tea shops or restaurants, match-stick making, and so on), child labouris illegal and employers can bepunished as criminals.

But by far the most common wayof classifying social change is by itscauses or sources. Sometimes thecauses are pre-classif ied intointernal (or endogenous) andexternal (or exogenous) causes.There are five broad types of sourcesor causes of social change:environmental, technological,economic, political and cultural.

Students in a classroom

2018-19


Environment

Nature, ecology and the physicalenvironment have always had asignificant influence on the structureand shape of society. This wasparticularly true in the past whenhuman beings were unable to controlor overcome the effects of nature. Forexample, people living in a desertenvironment were unable to practisesettled agriculture of the sort that waspossible in the plains, near rivers andso on. So the kind of food they ate orthe clothes they wore, the way theyearned their livelihood, and theirpatterns of social interaction were alldetermined to a large extent by thephysical and climatic conditions of

their environment. The same was true

for people living in very cold climates,or in port towns, along major trade

routes or mountain passes, or in fertile

river valleys. But the extent to which

the environment influences societyhas been decreasing over time with the

increase in technological resources.

Technology allows us to overcome or

adapt to the problems posed bynature, thus reducing the differences

between societies living in different

sorts of environments. On the other

hand, technology also alters natureand our relationship to it in new ways

(see the chapter on environment in

this book). So it is perhaps more

accurate to say that the effect of

A child doing skilled work

2018-19


may have shaped societies, but how didit play any role in social change? Theeasiest and most powerful answer tothis question can be found in naturaldisasters. Sudden and catastrophicevents such as earthquakes, volcaniceruptions, floods, or tidal waves (likethe tsunami that hit Indonesia, SriLanka, the Andaman Islands and partsof Tamil Nadu in December 2004) canchange societies quite drastically.These changes are often irreversible,that is, they are permanent and don’tallow a return to the way things were.For example, it is quite possible thatmany of those whose livelihoods weredestroyed by the tsunami will never beable to return to them again, and thatmany of the coastal villages will havetheir social structure completelyaltered. There are numerous instancesof natural disasters leading to a totaltransformation and sometimes totaldestruction of societies in history.Environmental or ecological factorsneed not only be destructive to causechange, they can be constructive aswell. A good example is the discoveryof oil in the desert regions of West Asia(also called the Middle East). Like thediscovery of gold in California in the19th century, oil reserves in the MiddleEast have completely transformed thesocieties in which they were found.Countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait orthe United Arab Emirates would be verydifferent today without their oil wealth.

Technology and Economy

The combination of technological andeconomic change has been responsible

The earth caves in after heavy floods

nature on society is changing rather

than simply declining.But how, you might ask, does this

affect social change? The environment

2018-19


for immense social changes, speciallyin the modern period. Technologyaffects society in a wide variety ofways. As seen above, it can help us toresist, control, adapt to or harnessnature in dif ferent ways. Incombination with the very powerfulinstitution of the market, technologicalchange can be as impressive in itssocial impact as natural factors like atsunami or the discovery of oil. Themost famous instance of massive andimmediately visible social changebrought about by technological changeis the Industrial Revolution itself,which you have already read about.

You will surely have heard of themassive social impact made by thesteam engine. The discovery of steampower allowed emerging forms of largescale industry to use of a source ofenergy that was not only far strongerthan animals or human beings, butwas also capable of continuousoperation without the need for rest.When harnessed to modes of transportlike the steam ship and the railway, ittransformed the economy and socialgeography of the world. The railroadenabled the westward expansion ofindustry and trade on the Americancontinent and in Asia. In India too,the railways have played a veryimportant role in shaping theeconomy, specially in the first centuryafter their introduction in 1853.Steamships made ocean voyagesmuch faster and much more reliable,thereby changing the dynamics of

international trade and migration.Both these developments createdgigantic ripples of change whichaffected not only the economy but alsothe social, cultural and demographicdimensions of world society.

The importance and impact ofsteam power became visible relativelyquickly; however, sometimes, thesocial impact of technological changesbecomes visible only retrospectively.A technological invention or discoverymay produce limited immediateef fects, as though it were lyingdormant. Some later change in theeconomic context may suddenlychange the social significance of thesame invention and give it recognitionas a historic event. Examples of thisare the discovery of gunpowder andwriting paper in China, which hadonly limited impact for centuries untilthey were inserted into the context ofmodernising Western Europe. Fromthat vantage point, given theadvantage of enabling circumstances,gunpowder helped to transform thetechnology of warfare and the paper-print revolution changed societyforever. Another example closer homeis the case of technological innovationsin the textile industry in Britain. Incombination with market forces andimperial power, the new spinning andweaving machines destroyed thehandloom industry of the Indiansubcontinent which was, until then,the largest and most advanced in theworld.

2018-19


Activity 3

Have you noticed other suchtechnological changes which havesocial consequences in your own life?Think of the photo-copying machineand its impact. Have you everthought of what things were likebefore photo-copying became socheap and freely available? Anotherexample could be the STD telephonebooths. Try to find out how peoplecommunicated before thesetelephone booths had appeared andvery few homes had telephoneconnections. Make a list of othersuch examples.

Sometimes changes in economicorganisation that are not directlytechnological can also change society.In a well-known historical example,plantation agriculture — that is, thegrowing of single cash crops likesugarcane, tea or cotton on a largescale — created a heavy demand forlabour. This demand helped toestablish the institution of slavery andthe slave trade between Africa, Europeand the Americas between the 17thand 19th centuries. In India, too, thetea plantations of Assam involved theforced migration of labour fromEastern India (specially the Adivasiareas of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh).Today, in many parts of the world,changes in customs duties or tariffsbrought about by internationalagreements and institutions like theWorld Trade Organisation, can lead toentire industries and occupationsbeing wiped out or (less often) suddenbooms or periods of prosperity forother industries or occupations.

Politics

In the old ways of writing andrecounting history, the actions ofkings and queens seemed to be themost important forces of socialchange. But as we know now, kingsand queens were the representativesof larger political, social and economictrends. Individuals may indeed havehad roles to play, but they were partof a larger context. In this sense,political forces have surely beenamong the most important causes ofsocial change. The clearest examplesare found in the history of warfare.When one society waged war onanother and conquered or wasconquered, social change was usuallyan immediate consequence.Sometimes, conquerors brought theseeds of change and planted themwherever they went. At other times,the conquered were actuallysuccessful in planting seeds of changeamong the conquerors andtransformed their societies. Althoughthere are many such examples inhistory, it is interesting to consider amodern instance — that of the UnitedStates and Japan.

The United States won a famousvictory over Japan in the Second WorldWar, partly through the use of aweapon of mass destruction neverseen before in human history, thenuclear bomb. After the Japanesesurrender, the United States occupiedand ruled over Japan for several years,bringing about lots of changes,including land reform in Japan.Japanese industry, at that time, was

2018-19


trying very hard to copy Americanindustry and learn from it. By the1970s, however, Japanese industrialtechniques, specially in fields like carmanufacturing, had gone far ahead ofthe Americans. Between the 1970sand 1990s, Japanese industrydominated the world and forcedchanges in the industrial organisationof Europe and specially the UnitedStates. The industrial landscape ofthe United States in particular wasdecisively altered by the impact ofJapanese industrial technology andproduction organisation. Large,traditionally dominant industries likesteel, automobiles and heavyengineering suffered major setbacksand had to restructure themselvesaccording to Japanese technologicaland management principles.Emerging fields like electronics werealso pioneered by the Japanese. Inshort, within the space of fourdecades, Japan had turned the tableson the United States, but througheconomic and technological meansrather than warfare.

Political changes need not only beinternational — they can haveenormous social impact even at home.Although you may not have thoughtof it this way, the Indian independencemovement did not only bring aboutpolitical change in the form of the endof British rule, it also decisivelychanged Indian society. A more recentinstance is to be found in the Nepalipeople’s rejection of monarchy in2006. More generally, politicalchanges bring about social change

through the redistribution of poweracross different social groups andclasses.

Considered from this viewpoint,universal adult franchise — or the ‘oneperson, one vote’ principle — isprobably the single biggest politicalchange in history. Until moderndemocracies formally empowered thepeople with the vote, and untilelections became mandatory forexercising legitimate power, societywas structured very differently. Kingsand queens claimed to rule by divineright, and they were not reallyanswerable to the common people.Even when democratic principles ofvoting were first introduced, they didnot include the whole population —in fact only a small minority couldvote, or had any say in the formationof the government. In the beginning,the vote was restricted to those whowere born into high status socialgroups of a particular race or ethnicity,or to wealthy men who ownedproperty. All women, men of lowerclasses or subordinated ethnicities, andthe poor and working people in generalwere not allowed to vote.

It is only through long strugglesthat universal adult franchise came tobe established as a norm. Of course,this did not abolish all the inequalitiesof previous eras. Even today, not allcountries follow democratic forms ofrule; even where elections are held,they can be manipulated; and peoplecan continue to be powerless toinfluence the decisions of theirgovernment. But despite all this, it

2018-19


cannot be denied that universal adultfranchise serves as a powerful normthat exerts pressure on every societyand every government. Governmentsmust now at least appear to seek theapproval of the people in order to beconsidered legitimate. This hasbrought massive social changes inits wake.

Culture

Culture is used here as a short labelfor a very wide field of ideas, values,beliefs, that are important to peopleand help shape their lives. Changesin such ideas and beliefs lead naturallyto changes in social life. Thecommonest example of a socio-cultural institution that has hadenormous social impact is religion.Religious beliefs and norms havehelped organise society and it is hardlysurprising that changes in thesebeliefs have helped transform society.So important has religion been, thatsome scholars have tended to definecivilisations in religious terms and tosee history as the process ofinteraction between religions.However, as with other importantfactors of social change, religion toois contextual — it is able to produceeffects in some contexts but not inothers. Max Weber’s study ‘TheProtestant Ethic and the Spirit ofCapitalism’ showed how the religiousbeliefs of some Christian Protestantsects helped to establish the capitalistsocial system. It remains one of themost famous examples of the impactof cultural values on economic and

social change. In India too we findmany examples of religion bringingabout social change. Among the bestknown are the impact of Buddhism onsocial and political life in ancient India,and the widespread influence of theBhakti Movement on medieval socialstructure including the caste system.

A different example of culturalchange leading to social change can

be seen in the evolution of ideas aboutthe place of women in society. In themodern era, as women have struggled

for equality, they have helped changesociety in many ways. Women’sstruggles have also been helped or

hindered by other historicalcircumstances. For example, duringthe Second World War, women in

western countries started to work infactories doing jobs that they hadnever done before, jobs which had

always been done by men. The factthat women were able to build ships,operate heavy machinery, manufacture

armaments and so on, helpedestablish their claims to equality. Butit is equally true that, had it not been

for the war, they would have had tostruggle for much longer. A verydifferent instance of change produced

by the position of women can be seenin consumer advertising. In mosturban societies, it is women who take

most of the everyday decisions aboutwhat to buy for their households. Thishas made advertisers very sensitive to

the views and perspectives of womenas consumers. Significant proportionsof advertising expenditure are now

directed at women, and this in turn

2018-19


has effects on the media. In short, theeconomic role of women starts a chainof changes which can have a largersocial impact. For example,advertisements may tend to showwomen as decision-makers and asimportant people in ways that wouldnot have been considered orencouraged before. More generally,most advertisements used to beaddressed to men; now they areaddressed as much to women, or, insome sectors like householdappliances and consumer goods,mainly to women. So it is noweconomically important for advertisersand manufacturers to pay attentionto what women think and feel.

Yet another instance of culturalchange bringing about social changecan be found in the history of sports.Games and sports have always beenexpressions of popular culture thatsometimes acquire a lot ofimportance. The game of cricketbegan as a British aristocraticpastime, spread to the middle andworking classes of Britain, and fromthere to British colonies across theworld. As the game acquired rootsoutside Britain, it often turned into asymbol of national or racial pride.The very different history of intenserivalry in cricket shows the socialimportance of sport in a very tellingmanner. The England-Australiarivalry expressed the resentment ofthe socially subordinated colony(Australia) against the dominant

upper class centre of authority(England). Similarly, the completeworld dominance of the West Indiescricket team during the 1970s and1980s, was also an expression ofracial pride on the part of a colonisedpeople. In India, too, beating Englandat cricket was always seen assomething special, particularly beforeindependence. At another level, theimmense popularity of cricket in theIndian sub-continent has altered thecommercial profile of the game whichis now driven by the interests of SouthAsian fans, specially Indians.

As will be clear from the abovediscussion, no single factor or theorycan account for social change. Thecauses of social change may beinternal or external, the result ofdeliberate actions or accidentalevents. Moreover, the causes of socialchange are often interrelated.Economic and technological causesmay also have a cultural component,politics may be influenced byenvironment. It is important to beaware of the many dimensions ofsocial change and its varied forms.Change is an important subject forus because the pace of change inmodern and specially contemporarytimes is much faster than what itused to be before. Although socialchange is better understoodretrospectively — after it has alreadyoccurred — we also need to be awareof it as it happens, and to prepare forit in whatever ways we can.

2018-19


SOCIAL ORDER

The meaning of social events orprocesses often becomes clearthrough contrasts, just as the letterson the page that you are readingbecome legible because they contrastagainst the background. In the sameway, social change as a processacquires meaning against thebackdrop of continuity or lack ofchange. It may sound odd, butchange makes sense as a conceptonly if there are also some things thatare not changing, so that they offerthe possibility of comparison orcontrast. In other words, socialchange has to be understood togetherwith social order, which is thetendency within established socialsystems that resists and regulateschange.

Another way of looking at therelationship between social changeand social order is to think about thepossible reasons why society needs toprevent, discourage, or at least controlchange. In order to establish itself asa strong and viable social system,every society must be able toreproduce itself over time andmaintain its stability. Stabilityrequires that things continue more orless as they are — that people continueto follow the same rules, that similaractions produce similar results, andmore generally, that individuals andinstitutions behave in a fairlypredictable manner.

Activity 4

We are used to thinking of samenessas boring and change as exciting; thisis also true, of course — change canbe fun and lack of change can bereally dull. But think of what lifewould be like if you were forced tochange all the time… What if younever, ever got the same food forlunch — every day somethingdifferent, and never the same thingtwice, regardless of whether youliked it or not? Here is a scarierthought — what if every time youcame back from school there weredifferent people at home, differentparents, different brothers andsisters…? What if whenever youplayed your favourite game —football, cricket, volleyball, hockeyand so on — the rules were differenteach time? Think of other areas ofyour life where you would like thingsto not change too quickly. Are thereareas of your life where you wantthings to change quickly? Try tothink about the reasons why youwant or don’t want change inparticular instances.

The above argument was anabstract and general one about thepossible reasons why societies mayneed to resist change. But there areusually more concrete and specificreasons why societies do in fact resistchange. Remember what you readabout social structure and socialstratification in Chapter 1. Mostsocieties most of the time are stratifiedin unequal ways, that is, the different

2018-19


strata are differently positioned withrespect to command over economicresources, social status and politicalpower. It is not surprising that thosewho are favourably placed wish forthings to continue as they are, whilethose who are suffering disadvantagesare anxious for change. So the rulingor dominant groups in societygenerally resist any social changesthat may alter their status, becausethey have a vested interest in stability.On the other hand, the subordinatedor oppressed groups have a vestedinterest in change. ‘Normal’ conditionsusually favour the rich and powerful,and they are able to resist change.This is another broad reason whysocieties are generally stable.

However, the notion of social orderis not restricted to the idea ofresistance to change, it also has amore positive meaning. It refers to theactive maintenance and reproductionof particular pattern of social relationsand of values and norms. Broadlyspeaking, social order can be achievedin one of two ways — when peoplespontaneously wish to abide by a setof rules and norms; or when peopleare compelled in various ways to obeysuch norms. Every society employs acombination of these methods tosustain social order.

Spontaneous consent to socialorder derives ultimately from sharedvalues and norms which areinternalised by people through theprocess of socialisation. (Revisit thediscussion of socialisation inIntroducing Sociology). Socialisation

may be more or less efficient indif ferent contexts, but howeverefficient it is, it can never completelyerase the will of the individual. Inother words, socialisation cannot turnpeople into programmed robots — itcannot produce complete andpermanent consent for all norms atall times. You may have experiencedthis in your own lives: rules or beliefswhich seem very natural and right atone point of time, don’t seem soobviously correct at other times. Wequestion things we believed in thepast, and change our minds aboutwhat we regard as right or wrong.Sometimes, we may even return tobeliefs we once held and thenabandoned, only to rediscover themafresh at some later stage of life or indifferent circumstances. So, whilesocialisation does take on much of theburden of producing social order, it isnever enough by itself.

Thus, most modern societies mustalso depend on some form of power orcoercion to ensure that institutionsand individuals conform to establishedsocial norms. Power is usually definedas the ability to make others do whatyou want regardless of what theythemselves want. When a relationshipof power is stable and settled, and theparties involved have becomeaccustomed to their relative positions,we have a situation of domination. Ifa social entity (a person, institutionor group) is routinely or habitually ina position of power, it is said to bedominant. In normal times, dominantinstitutions, groups or individuals

2018-19


exercise a decisive influence on society.It is not as though they are neverchallenged, but this happens only inabnormal or extraordinary times. Eventhough it implies that people are beingforced to do things they don’tnecessarily want to do, domination innormal times can be quite ‘smooth’, inthe sense of appearing to be withoutfriction or tension. (Revisit thediscussion of ‘forced cooperation’ fromChapter 1. Why, for example, didwomen not want to claim their rightsin their families of birth? Why did they‘consent’ to the patriarchal norm?)

Domination, Authority and Law

How is it that domination can be non-confrontational even when it clearlyinvolves unequal relationships wherecosts and benefits are unevenlydistributed? Part of the answer we havealready got from the discussion of theprevious chapter — dominant groupsextract cooperation in unequalrelationships because of their power.But why does this power work? Doesit work purely because of the threat ofthe use of force? This is where we cometo an important concept in sociology,that of legitimation.

In social terms, legitimacy refersto the degree of acceptance that isinvolved in power relations.Something that is legitimate isaccepted as proper, just and fitting.In the broadest sense, it isacknowledged to be part of the socialcontract that is currently prevailing.In short, legitimacy implies conformityto existing norms of right, propriety

and justice. We have already seen howpower is defined in society; power initself is simply a fact — it can be eitherlegitimate or not. Authority is definedby Max Weber as legitimate power —that is, power considered to bejustified or proper. For example, apolice officer, a judge, or a schoolteacher all exercise different kinds ofauthority as part of their jobs. Thisauthority is explicitly provided to themby their official job description — thereare written documents specifying theirauthority, and what they may and maynot do.

The fact that they have authorityautomatically implies that othermembers of society — who haveagreed to abide by its rules andregulations — must obey this authoritywithin its proper domain. The domainof the judge is the court room, andwhen citizens are in the court, they aresupposed to obey the judge or defer toher/his authority. Outside thecourtroom, the judge is supposed tobe like any other citizen. So, on thestreet, S/he must obey the lawfulauthority of the police officer. Whenon duty, the policeman or woman hasauthority over the public actions of allcitizens except her/his superiorofficers. But police officers do not havejurisdiction over the private activitiesof citizens as long as they are notsuspected of being unlawful. Indifferent way — different because thenature of the authority involved is lessstrictly or explicitly defined — theteacher has authority over her/hispupils in the classroom. The authority

2018-19


as an individual agree with aparticular law, it has binding force onme as a citizen, and on all other

citizens similarly regardless of theirbeliefs.

So, domination works through

power, but much of this power isactually legitimate power or authority,a large part of which is codified in law.

Consent and cooperation are obtainedon a regular and reliable basis becauseof the backing of this structure of

legitimation and formal institutionalsupport. This does not exhaust thedomain of power or domination —

there are many kinds of power that areeffective in society even though theyare illegitimate, or if legitimate are not

codified in law. It is the mix oflegitimate, lawful authority and otherkinds of power that determines the

nature of a social system and also itsdynamics.

Contestation, Crime and Violence

The existence of domination, power,legitimate authority and law does notimply that they always meet withobedience and conformity. You havealready read about the presence ofconflict and competition in society. Ina similar way, we need to recognisemore general forms of contestation insociety. Contestation is used here assimply a word for broad forms ofinsistent disagreement. Competitionand conflict are more specific thanthis, and leave out other forms ofdissent that may not be well describedby such terms.

of the teacher does not extend into thehome of the pupil where parents orguardians have primary responsibilityand authority over their children.

There may be other forms ofauthority that are not so strictlydefined, but are nevertheless effectivein eliciting consent and cooperation.A good example is the authoritywielded by a religious leader. Althoughsome institutionalised religions mayhave partly formalised this authority,but the leader of a sect or other less-institutionalised minor religious groupmay wield enormous authoritywithout it being formalised. Similarlyreputed scholars, artists, writers andother intellectuals may wield a lot ofauthority in their respective fieldswithout it being formalised. The sameis true of a criminal gang leader — heor she may exercise absolute authoritybut without any formal specifications.

The difference between explicitlycodified and more informal authorityis relevant to the notion of the law. Alaw is an explicitly codified norm orrule. It is usually written down, andthere are laws that specify how lawsare to be made or changed, or what isto be done if someone violates them.A modern democratic society has agiven body of laws created through itslegislature, which consist of electedrepresentatives. The laws of the landare enacted in the name of the peopleof that land by the people’srepresentatives. This law forms theformal body of rules according towhich society will be governed. Lawsapply to all citizens. Whether or not I

2018-19


One example is that of ‘countercultures’ among youth or ‘youthrebellion’. These are protests againstor refusal to conform to prevalentsocial norms. The content of theseprotests may involve anything fromhairstyles and clothing fashions tolanguage or lifestyle. More standardor conventional forms of contestationinclude elections — which are a formof political competition. Contestationsalso include dissent or protest againstlaws or lawful authorities. Open anddemocratic societies allow this kind ofdissent to different degrees. There areboth explicit and implicit boundariesdefined for such dissent; crossingthese boundaries invites some form ofreaction from society, usually from thelaw enforcement authorities.

As you know very well, beingunited as Indians does not prevent usfrom disagreeing with each other.Different political parties may havevery different agendas even thoughthey may respect the sameConstitution. Belief in or knowledgeof the same set of traffic rules doesnot prevent heated arguments on theroad. In other words, social order neednot mean sameness or unanimity. Onthe other hand, how much differenceor dissent is tolerated in society is animportant question. The answer tothis question depends on social andhistorical circumstances but it alwaysmarks an important boundary insociety, the boundary between thelegitimate and the illegitimate, thelegal and the illegal, and theacceptable and the unacceptable.

Although it generally carries astrong moral charge, the notion ofcrime is strictly derived from the law.A crime is an act that violates anexisting law, nothing more, nothingless. The moral worth of the act is notdetermined solely by the fact that itviolates existing law. If the existing lawis believed to be unjust, for example,a person may claim to be breaking itfor the highest moral reasons. This isexactly what the leaders of theFreedom Movement in India weredoing as part of their ‘CivilDisobedience’ campaign. WhenMahatma Gandhi broke the salt lawof the British government at Dandi,he was committing a crime, and hewas arrested for it. But he committedthis crime deliberately and proudly,and the Indian people were also proudof him and what he stood for. Ofcourse, these are not the only kindsof crime that are committed! There aremany other kinds of crime that cannotclaim any great moral virtue. But theimportant point is that a crime is thebreaking of the law — going beyondthe boundary of legitimate dissent asdefined by the law.

The question of violence relates atthe broadest level to the basic definitionof the state. One of the defining featuresof the modern state is that it issupposed to have a monopoly over theuse of legitimate violence within itsjurisdiction. In other words, only thestate (through its authorisedfunctionaries) may lawfully useviolence — all other instances ofviolence are by definition illegal. (There

2018-19


are exceptions like self defense meantfor extraordinary and rare situations).Thus, technically, every act of violenceis seen as being directed against thestate. Even if I assault or murder someother individual, it is the state thatprosecutes me for violating itsmonopoly over the legitimate use ofviolence.

It is obvious that violence is theenemy of social order, and an extremeform of contestation that transgressesnot only the law, but important socialnorms. Violence in society is theproduct of social tensions andindicates the presence of seriousproblems. It is also a challenge to theauthority of the state. In this sense italso marks the failure of the regime oflegitimation and consent and the openoutbreak of conflicts.

SOCIAL ORDER AND CHANGE IN VILLAGE,TOWN AND CITY

Most societies can be divided into ruraland urban sectors. The conditions oflife and therefore the forms of socialorganisation in these sectors are verydifferent from each other. So also,therefore, are the forms of social orderthat prevail in these sectors, and thekinds of social change that are mostsignificant in each.

We all think we know what ismeant by a village and by a town orcity. But how exactly do wedifferentiate between them? (see alsothe discussion in Chapter 5 on VillageStudies in the section onM.N. Srinivas). From a sociologicalpoint of view, villages emerged as part

of the major changes in socialstructure brought about by thetransition from nomadic ways of lifebased on hunting, gathering food andtransient agriculture to a more settledform of life. With the development ofsedentary forms of agriculture — orforms that did not involve moving fromplace to place — social structure alsochanged. Investment in land andtechnological innovations inagriculture created the possibility ofproducing a surplus – something overand above what was needed forsurvival. Thus, settled agriculturemeant that wealth could beaccumulated and this also broughtwith it social differences. The moreadvanced division of labour alsocreated the need for occupationalspecialisation. All of these changestogether shaped the emergence of thevillage as a population settlementbased on a particular form of socialorganisation.

In economic and administrativeterms, the distinction between ruraland urban settlements is usually madeon the basis of two major factors:population density and the proportionof agriculture related economicactivities. (Contrary to appearances,size is not always decisive; it becomesdifficult to separate large villages andsmall towns on the basis of populationsize alone.) Thus, cities and townshave a much higher density ofpopulation — or the number of personsper unit area, such as a square km —than villages. Although they aresmaller in terms of absolute numbers

2018-19


of people, villages are spread out overa relatively larger area. Villages are alsodistinguished from towns and cities bythe larger share of agricultural activitiesin their economic profile. In otherwords, villages will have a significantproportion of its population engagedin agriculture linked occupations,much of what is produced there will beagricultural products, and most of itsincome will be from agriculture.

The distinction between a town andcity is much more a matter ofadministrative definition. A town andcity are basically the same sort ofsettlement, differentiated by size. An‘urban agglomeration’ (a term used inCensuses and official reports) refers toa city along with its surrounding sub-urban areas and satellite settlements.A ‘metropolitan area’ includes morethan one city, or a continuous urbansettlement many times the size of asingle city.

Given the directions in whichmodern societies have developed, theprocess of urbanisation has beenexperienced in most countries. This isthe process by which a progressivelylarger and larger proportion of thecountry’s population lives in urbanrather than rural areas. Mostdeveloped countries are nowoverwhelmingly urban. Urbanisationis also the trend in developingcountries; it can be faster or slower, butunless there are special reasonsblocking it, the process does seem tooccur in most contexts. According toUnited Nations report (2014), 54 percent of the world's population lives inurban areas, a proportion that is

expected to increase to 66 per cent by2050 (United Nations, Department ofEconomc and Social Affairs, PopulationDivision, 2014, World Populationprospects). Indian society is alsoexperiencing urbanisation: thepercentage of the population living inurban areas has increased from a littleless than 11 per cent in 1901 to a littlemore than17 per cent in 1951, soonafter independence. The 2001 Censusshows that almost 28 per cent of thepopulation lives in urban areas.According to 2011 Census report,37.7 per cent population of India livesin urban areas.

Social Order and Social Change inRural Areas

Because of the objective conditions invillages being different, we can expectthe nature of social order and socialchange to be different as well. Villagesare small in size so they usually permitmore personalised relationships; it isnot unusual for members of a villageto know all or most other members bysight. Moreover, the social structurein villages tends to follow a moretraditional pattern: institutions likecaste, religion, and other forms ofcustomary or traditional social practiceare stronger here. For these reasons,unless there are special circumstancesthat make for an exception, change isslower to arrive in villages than in towns.

There are also other reasons for this.A variety of factors ensure that thesubordinate sections of society havemuch less scope for expressingthemselves in rural areas than theircounterparts in cities. The lack of

2018-19


anonymity and distance in the villagemakes it difficult for people to dissentbecause they can be easily identifiedand ‘taught a lesson’ by the dominantsections. Moreover, the relative powerof the dominant sections is much morebecause they control most avenues ofemployment, and most resources of allkinds. So the poor have to depend onthe dominant sections since there areno alternative sources of employmentor support. Given the small population,it is also very difficult to gather largenumbers, particularly since effortstowards this cannot be hidden from thepowerful and are very quicklysuppressed. So, in short, if there is astrong power structure already in placein a village, it is very difficult to dislodgeit. Change in the sense of shifts in powerare thus slow and late to arrive in ruralareas because the social order isstronger and more resilient.

Change of other sorts is also slowto come because villages are scatteredand not as well connected to the rest ofthe world as cities and towns are. Ofcourse, new modes of communication,particularly the telephone and thetelevision have changed this. So thecultural ‘lag’ between villages andtowns is now much shorter or non-existent. Communication links of othersorts (road, rail) have also generallyimproved over time so that few villagescan really claim to be ‘isolated’ or‘remote’, words often unthinkinglyattached to villages in the past. Thishas also accelerated the pace of changesomewhat.

For obvious reasons changesassociated with agriculture or with

agrarian social relations have a verymajor impact on rural societies. Thus,measures like land reform which alterthe structure of land ownership havean immediate impact. In India, the firstphase of land reforms afterindependence took away proprietaryrights from absentee landlords andgave them to the groups that wereactually managing the land and itscultivation in the village. Most of thesegroups belonged to intermediate castes,and though they were often notthemselves the cultivators, theyacquired rights over land. Incombination with their number, thisfactor increased their social status andpolitical power, because their votesmattered for winning elections. M.N.Srinivas has named these groups as the‘dominant castes’. In many regionalcontexts, the dominant castes becamevery powerful in economic terms anddominated the countryside and hencealso electoral politics. In more recenttimes, these dominant castes arethemselves facing opposition from theassertive uprisings of castes furtherbelow them, the lowest and the mostbackward castes. This has led to majorsocial upheavals in many states likeAndhra Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradeshand Tamil Nadu.

In the same way, changes in thetechnological organisation ofagriculture also has a large andimmediate impact on rural society.The introduction of new labour savingmachinery or new cropping patternsmay alter the demand for labour andthus change the relative bargaining

2018-19


strength of different social groups likelandlords and labourers. Even if theydon’t directly affect labour demand,technological or economic changes canchange the economic power of differentgroups and thus set in motion a chainof changes. Sudden fluctuations inagricultural prices, droughts or floodscan cause havoc in rural society. Therecent spate of farmer suicides in Indiais an example of this. On the otherhand, large scale developmentprogrammes aimed at the rural poorcan also have an enormous impact.A good example of this is theNational Rural EmploymentGuarantee Act of 2005.

Activity 5

Find out more about the NationalRural Employment Guarantee Act.What does it aim to do? Why is itconsidered such an importantdevelopment programme? Whatproblems does it face? What wouldbe the likely consequences if itsucceeds?

Social Order and Social Change inUrban Areas

It is well known that though the cityitself is very old — even ancientsocieties had them — urbanism as away of life for large segments of thepopulation is a modern phenomenon.Before the modern era, trade, religionand warfare were some of the majorfactors that decided the location andimportance of cities. Cities that werelocated on major trade routes, or hadsuitable harbours and ports had a

natural advantage. So did cities thatwere well located from the point of viewof military strategy. Finally, religiousplaces attracted large numbers ofpilgrims and thus supported an urbaneconomy. In India too we haveexamples of such old cities, includingthe well known medieval trading townsof Tezpur on the Brahmaputra riverin Assam or Kozhikode (formerlyknown as Calicut) on the Arabian Seain northern Kerala. We also havemany examples of temple towns andplaces of religious pilgrimage, such asAjmer in Rajasthan, Varanasi (alsoknown as Benaras or Kashi) in UttarPradesh, or Madurai in Tamil Nadu.

As sociologists have pointed out, citylife and modernity go very well together;in fact, each may be considered anintimate expression of the other.Though it houses large and very densepopulations, and though it has beenknown throughout history as the sitefor mass politics, the city is also thedomain of the modern individual. In itscombination of anonymity and theamenities and institutions that onlylarge numbers can support, the cityoffers the individual boundlesspossibilities for fulfillment. Unlike thevillage, which discourages individualityand cannot offer much, the city nurturesthe individual.

But while the many artists, writers,and scholars who have celebrated thecity as the haven of the individual arenot wrong, it is also true that freedomand opportunity are available only tosome individuals. More accurately,only a socially and economically

2018-19


privileged minority can have the luxuryof a predominantly free and fulfilling life.Most people who live in cities have onlylimited and relative freedoms withinlarger constraints. These are the familiareconomic and social constraintsimposed by membership in socialgroups of various kinds, already knownto you from the previous chapter. Thecity, too, fosters the development ofgroup identities — based on factors likerace, religion, ethnicity, caste, region,and of course class — which are all wellrepresented in urban life. In fact, theconcentration of large numbers in arelatively small space intensifiesidentities and makes them integralto strategies of survival, resistanceand assertion.

Most of the important issues andproblems of social order in towns andcities are related to the question ofspace. High population density placesa great premium on space and createsvery complex problems of logistics. Itis the primary task of the urban socialorder to ensure the spatial viability ofthe city. This means the organisationand management of things like:housing and residential patterns; masstransit systems for transporting largenumbers of workers to and fro for work;arranging for the coexistence ofresidential, public and industrial land-use zones; and finally all the publichealth, sanitation, policing, public safetyand monitoring needs of urbangovernance. Each of these functions

A doctor checking a patient

2018-19


is a huge undertaking in itself andpresents formidable challenges ofplanning, implementation andmaintenance. What adds to thecomplexity is that all of these tasks haveto be performed in a context where thedivisions and tensions of class, ethnicity,religion, caste and so on are also presentand active.

For example, the question of urbanhousing brings with it a whole host ofproblems. Shortage of housing for thepoor leads to homelessness, and thephenomenon of ‘street people’ — thosewho live and survive on the streets andfootpaths, under bridges and flyovers,abandoned buildings and other emptyspaces. It is also the leading cause forthe emergence of slums. Thoughofficial definitions vary, a slum is acongested, overcrowded neighbourhood

with no proper civic facilities(sanitation, water supply, electricityand so on) and homes made of all kindsof building materials ranging fromplastic sheets and cardboard to multi-storeyed concrete structures. Becauseof the absence of ‘settled’ propertyrights of the kind seen elsewhere, slumsare the natural breeding ground for‘dadas’ and strongmen who imposetheir authority on the people who livethere. Control over slum territorybecomes the natural stepping stone toother kinds of extra-legal activities,including criminal and real estate-related gangs.

Where and how people will live incities is a question that is also filteredthrough socio-cultural identities.Residential areas in cities all over theworld are almost always segregated by

A girl child looking after the sibling

2018-19


A commercial centre in a city

Women at work in cotton field

2018-19


class, and often also by race, ethnicity,religion and other such variables.Tensions between such identities bothcause these segregation patterns andare also a consequence. For example,in India, communal tensions betweenreligious communities, most commonlyHindus and Muslims, results in theconversion of mixed neighbourhoodsinto single-community ones. This inturn gives a specific spatial pattern tocommunal violence whenever it erupts,which again furthers the ‘ghettoisation’

process. This has happened in manycities in India, most recently in Gujaratfollowing the riots of 2002. Theworldwide phenomenon of ‘gatedcommunities’ is also found in Indiancities. This refers to the creation ofaffluent neighbourhoods that areseparated from their surroundings bywalls and gates, with controlled entryand exit. Most such communities alsohave their own parallel civic facilities,such as water and electricity supply,policing and security.

Various kinds of transport in an urban area

2018-19


Shopping in a city

2018-19


Activity 6

Have you come across such ‘gatedcommunities’ in your town or city,or in one you have visited? Findout from your elders about such acommunity. When did the gates andfences come up? Was there anyopposition, and if so by whom? Whatreasons might people have forwanting to live in such places? Whateffects do you think it has on urbansociety and on the neighbourhoodssurrounding it?

Finally, housing patterns arelinked to the economy of the city incrucial ways. The urban transportsystem is directly and severely affectedby the location of residential areasrelative to industrial and commercialworkplaces. If these are far apart, asis often the case, an elaborate masstransit system must be created andmaintained. Commuting becomes away of life and an ever present sourceof possible disruption. The transportsystem has a direct impact on the‘quality of life’ of working people in thecity. Reliance on road transport andspecially on private rather than publicmodes (i.e., cars rather than buses)creates problems of traffic congestionand vehicular pollution. As will beclear to you from the above discussion,the apparently simple issue ofdistribution of living space is actuallya very complex and multi-dimensionalaspect of urban society.

Daily long distance commuters canbecome an influential politicalconstituency and sometimes developelaborate sub-cultures. For example,the sub-urban trains of Mumbai —popularly known as ‘locals’ — havemany informal associations ofcommuters. Collective on-trainactivities include singing bhajans,celebrating festivals, choppingvegetables, playing card and boardgames (including tournaments), or

just general socialising.

The form and content of socialchange in urban areas is also bestunderstood in relation to the centralquestion of space. One very visibleelement of change is the ups anddowns experienced by particularneighbourhoods and localities. Acrossthe world, the city centre – or the corearea of the original city – has had manychanges of fortune. After being thepower centre of the city in the 19thand early 20th century, the city centrewent through a period of decline in thelatter half of the 20th century. Thiswas also the period of the growth ofsuburbs as the af fluent classesdeserted the inner city for the suburbsfor a variety of reasons. City centresare experiencing a revival now in manymajor western cities as attempts toregenerate community life and the artsbear fruit. A related phenomenon is‘gentrification’, which refers to theconversion of a previously lower classneighbourhood into a middle and

2018-19


upper class one. As real estate pricesrise, it becomes more and moreprofitable for developers to try andeffect such a conversion. At somepoint, the campaign becomes self-fulfilling as rental values increase andthe locality acquires a criticalminimum of prosperous businessesand residents. But sometimes theeffort may fail and the neighbourhoodgoes back down the class scale andreturns to its previous status.

Activity 7

Have you noticed any ‘gentrification’or ‘up-scaling’ taking place in yourneighbourhood? Do you know ofsuch instances? Find out what thelocality was like before thishappened. In what ways has itchanged? How have these changesaffected different social groups andclasses? Who benefits and wholoses? Who decides about changesof this sort — is there voting, or someform of public discussion?

Changes in modes of mass

transport may also bring about

significant social change in cities.

Affordable, efficient and safe public

transport makes a huge difference to

city life and can shape the social

character of a city apart from

influencing its economic fortunes.

Many scholars have written on the

difference between cities based on

public transport like London or New

York and cities that depend mainly

on individualised car -based

transport like Los Angeles. It remains

to be seen, for example, whether the

new Metro Rail in Delhi wil l

significantly change social life in that

city. But the main issue regarding

social change in cities, specially in

rapidly urbanising countries like

India, is how the city will cope with

constant increase in population as

migrants keep streaming in to add to

its natural growth.

GLOSSARY

Customs Duties, Tariffs: Taxes imposed on goods entering or leaving a country,which increase its price and make it less competitive relative to domesticallyproduced goods.

Dominant Castes: Term attributed to M.N. Srinivas; refers to landowningintermediate castes that are numerically large and therefore enjoy politicaldominance in a given region.

Gated Communities: Urban localities (usually upper class or affluent) sealedoff from its surroundings by fences, walls and gates, with controlled entryand exit.

Gentrification: The term used to describe the conversion of a low class (urban)neighbourhood into a middle or upper class neighbourhood.

2018-19


Ghetto, Ghettoisation: Originally from the term used for the locality whereJews lived in medieval European cities, today refers to any neighbourhoodwith a concentration of people of a particular religion, ethnicity, caste or othercommon identity. Ghettoisation is the process of creation of ghettoes throughthe conversion of mixed composition neighbourhoods into single communityneighbourhoods.

Legitimation: The process of making legitimate, or the grounds on whichsomething is considered legitimate, i.e., proper, just, right etc.

Mass Transit: Modes of fast city transport for large number of people.

EXERCISES

1. Would you agree with the statement that rapid social change is a comparativelynew phenomenon in human history? Give reasons for your answer.

2. How is social change to be distinguished from other kinds of change?

3. What do you understand by ‘structural change’? Explain with examples otherthan those in the text.

4. Describe some kinds of environment-related social change.

5. What are some kinds of changes brought about by technology and the economy?

6. What is meant by social order and how is it maintained?

7. What is authority and how is it related to domination and the law?

8. How are a village, town and city distinguished from each other?

9. What are some features of social order in rural areas?

10. What are some of the challenges to social order in urban areas?

REFERENCES

GIDDENS, Antony. Sociology. 4th edition.

GERTH, HANS and C. WRIGHT MILLS. (eds) from Max Weber.

KHILNANI, SUNIL. 2002. The Idea of India, Penguin Books, New Delhi.

Patel, Sujata and Kushal Deb (eds). 2006. Urban Sociology, Readings inSociology and Social Anthropology series). Oxford University Press,New Delhi.

SRINIVAS, M.N. Social Change in Modern India.

2018-19


CHAPTER 3

ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY

Look around you. What do you see? Ifyou are in a classroom, you may seestudents in uniform, sitting on chairswith books open on their desk. Thereare school bags with lunch and pencilboxes. Ceiling fans might be whirringoverhead. Have you ever thoughtabout where these things — schoolclothes, furniture, bags, electricity,come from? If you trace their origins,you will find that the source of eachmaterial object lies in nature. Everyday, we use objects whose productiondraws upon natural resources fromaround the world. The chair in yourclassroom may be made from woodwith iron nails, glue and varnish. Itsjourney from a tree in a forest orplantation to you depends onelectricity, diesel, facilities for trade,and telecommunications. Along theway, it has passed through the handsof loggers, carpenters, supervisors andmanagers, transporters, traders andthose in charge of buying schoolfurniture. These producers anddistributors, and the inputs that theyprovide into chair manufacturing, inturn use a variety of goods andservices derived from nature. Try and

map these resource flows and you willsoon see how complex suchrelationships are!

In this chapter, we will study socialrelationships with the environment asthey have changed over time and asthey vary from place to place. It isimportant to analyse and interpretsuch variations in a systematic way.There are many urgent environmentalproblems that demand our attention.To address these crises effectively, weneed a sociological framework forunderstanding why they occur andhow they might be prevented orresolved.

All societies have an ecologicalbasis. The term ecology denotes theweb of physical and biological systemsand processes of which humans areone element. Mountains and rivers,plains and oceans, and the flora andfauna that they support, are a part ofecology. The ecology of a place is alsoaffected by the interaction between itsgeography and hydrology. Forexample, the plant and animal lifeunique to a desert is adapted to itsscarce rainfall, rocky or sandy soils,and extreme temperatures. Similar

2018-19

51ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY

ecological factors limit and shape howhuman beings can live in anyparticular place.

Over time, however, ecology hasbeen modified by human action.What appears to be a natural featureof the environment — aridity or flood-proneness, for example, is oftenproduced by human intervention.Deforestation in the upper catchmentof a river may make the river moreflood-prone. Climate change broughtabout by global warming is anotherinstance of the widespread impact ofhuman activity on nature. Over time,it is often difficult to separate anddistinguish between the natural andhuman factors in ecological change.

Activity 1

Did you know that the Ridge forestin Delhi is not the natural vegetationof this region but was planted by theBritish around 1915? Its dominanttree species is Prosopis juliflora

(vilayati kikar or vilayati babul) whichwas introduced into India from SouthAmerica and which has becomenaturalised all over north India.

Did you know that the chaurs,the wide grassy meadows of CorbettNational Park in Uttarakhand whichoffer excellent views of wildlife, wereonce agricultural fields? Villages inthe area were relocated in order tocreate what now appears to be apristine wilderness.

Can you think of otherexamples where what seems to be‘natural’ is actually modified by

cultural interventions?

Alongside biophysical propertiesand processes that may have beentransformed by human action — forexample, the flow of a river and thespecies composition of a forest, thereare other ecological elements aroundus that are more obviously human-made. An agricultural farm with itssoil and water conservation works, itscultivated plants and domesticatedanimals, its inputs of syntheticfertilisers and pesticides, is clearly ahuman transformation of nature. Thebuilt environment of a city, made fromconcrete, cement, brick, stone, glassand tar, uses natural resources but isvery much a human artefact.

Social environments emerge fromthe interaction between biophysicalecology and human interventions.This is a two-way process. Just asnature shapes society, society shapesnature. For instance, the fertile soil ofthe Indo-Gangetic floodplain enablesintensive agriculture. Its highproductivity allows dense populationsettlements and generates enoughsurpluses to support other, non-agricultural activities, giving rise tocomplex hierarchical societies andstates. In contrast, the desert ofRajasthan can only supportpastoralists who move from place toplace in order to keep their livestocksupplied with fodder. These areinstances of ecology shaping the formsof human life and culture. On theother hand, the social organisation ofcapitalism has shaped nature acrossthe world. The private automobile isone instance of a capitalist commodity

2018-19


that has transformed lives andlandscapes. Air pollution andcongestion in cities, regional conflictsand wars over oil, and global warming

are just a few of the environmentaleffects of cars. Human interventionsincreasingly have the power to alterenvironments, often permanently.

A dam

A small dam

2018-19


The ecological effects of theIndustrial Revolution in Britainwere felt all over the world. Largeareas of southern North Americaand the Caribbean were convertedto plantations to meet the demandfor cotton in the mills of Lancashire.Young West Africans were forciblytransported to America to work asslave labour on the plantations. Thedepopulation of West Africa causedits agricultural economy to decline,with fields reverting to fallowwastelands. In Britain, smoke fromthe coal-burning mills fouled the air.Displaced farmers and labourersfrom the countryside came to thecities for work and lived in wretchedconditions. The ecological footprintsof the cotton industry could be foundall over urban and rural

environments.

The interaction betweenenvironment and society is shaped bysocial organisation. Propertyrelations determine how and by whomnatural resources can be used. Forinstance, if forests are owned by thegovernment, it will have the power todecide whether it should lease themto timber companies or allow villagersto collect forest produce. Privateownership of land and water sourceswill affect whether others can haveaccess to these resources and on whatterms and conditions. Ownership andcontrol over resources is also relatedto the division of labour in theproduction process. Landlesslabourers and women will have adifferent relationship with naturalresources than men. In rural India,

women are likely to experience resourcescarcity more acutely becausegathering fuel and fetching water aregenerally women’s tasks but they donot control these resources. Socialorganisation influences how differentsocial groups relate to theirenvironment.

Different relationships betweenenvironment and society also reflectdifferent social values and norms, aswell as knowledge systems. Thevalues underlying capitalism havesupported the commodification ofnature, turning it into objects that canbe bought and sold for profit. Forinstance, the multiple culturalmeanings of a river — its ecological,utilitarian, spiritual, and aestheticsignificance, are stripped down to asingle set of calculations about profitand loss from the sale of water for anentrepreneur. Socialist values ofequality and justice have led to theseizure of lands from large landlordsand their redistribution amonglandless peasants in a number ofcountries. Religious values have ledsome social groups to protect andconserve sacred groves and speciesand others to believe that they havedivine sanction to change theenvironment to suit their needs.

There are many differentperspectives on the environmentand its relationship to society. Thesedif ferences include the ‘nature-nurture’ debate and whetherindividual characteristics are innateor are influenced by environmentalfactors. For instance, are people poor

2018-19


because they are innately lesstalented or hard-working or becausethey are born into a situation ofdisadvantage and lack ofopportunity? Theories and dataabout environment and society areinfluenced by the social conditionsunder which they emerge. Thus thenotions that women are intrinsicallyless able than men, and Blacksnaturally less able than Whites, werechallenged as ideas of equalitybecame more widespread during the18th century’s social and politicalrevolutions. Colonialism generated agreat deal of knowledge aboutenvironment and society, oftensystematically compiling it in orderto make resources available to theimperial powers. Geology, geography,botany, zoology, forestry andhydraulic engineering were amongthe many disciplines that were createdand institutionalised to facilitate the

management of natural resources forcolonial purposes.

Environmental management is,however, a very difficult task. Notenough is known about biophysicalprocesses to predict and control them.In addition, human relations with theenvironment have become increasinglycomplex. With the spread of indu-strialisation, resource extraction hasexpanded and accelerated, affectingecosystems in unprecedented ways.Complex industrial technologies andmodes of organisation requiresophisticated management systemswhich are often fragile and vulnerableto error. We live in risk societies usingtechnologies and products that we donot fully grasp. The occurrence ofnuclear disasters like Chernobyl,industrial accidents like Bhopal, andMad Cow disease in Europe shows thedangers inherent in industrialenvironments.

Bhopal Industrial Disaster: Who was to Blame?

On the night of 3 December 1984, a deadly gas spread through Bhopal, killingabout 4,000 people and leaving another 200,000 permanently disabled. The gaswas later identified as methyl isocyanate (MIC), accidentally released by a UnionCarbide pesticide factory in the city. In its State of India’s Environment: The Second

Citizens’ Report, the Centre for Science and Environment analysed the reasonsbehind the disaster:

‘Union Carbide’s coming to Bhopal in 1977 was welcomed by all, because itmeant jobs and money for Bhopal, and saving in foreign exchange for the country,with the rising demand for pesticides after the Green Revolution. The MIC plantwas troublesome from the start and there were several leakages, including one thatcaused the death of a plant operator, until the big disaster. However, the governmentsteadfastly ignored warnings, notably from the head of the Bhopal MunicipalCorporation who issued notice to Union Carbide to move out of Bhopal in 1975.The officer was transferred and the company donated Rs 25,000 to the Corporationfor a park.

2018-19


MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS AND RISKS

Although the relative importance orurgency of different environmentalhazards may vary from country tocountry and context to context, thefollowing are globally recognized as themain ones:

A. Resource Depletion

Using up non-renewable naturalresources is one of the most serious

environmental problems. While fossilfuels and specially petroleum hog theheadlines, the depletion anddestruction of water and land isprobably even more rapid. The rapiddecline in groundwater levels is anacute problem all over India, especiallyin the states of Punjab, Haryana andUttar Pradesh. Aquifers which haveaccumulated water over hundreds andthousands of years are being emptiedin matter of a few decades to meet the

The warnings kept coming. In May 1982, three experts from the UnionCarbide Corporation, USA, surveyed safety measures and pointed out alarminglapses. These fears were reported in a local weekly Rapat, in what was to be aseries of prophetic articles in 1982. At the same time, the factory’s employeesunion also wrote to Central ministers and the chief minister warning them ofthe situation. The state Labour Minister reassured legislators at several timesthat the factory was safe. Only a few weeks before the gas leak, the factory hadbeen granted an environmental clearance certificate by the state pollution controlboard. The Central government rivalled its state counterpart in casualness. Itignored the plant’s safety record in granting it permission and ignored Departmentof Environment guidelines on the siting of hazardous plants.

Why the guidelines and warnings were ignored is clear. The company employsthe relatives of powerful politicians and bureaucrats. Its legal adviser is animportant political leader and its public relations officer is the nephew of a formerminister. The company’s posh guesthouse was always at the disposal of politicians.The chief minister’s wife had reportedly received lavish hospitality from the companyduring visits to the USA, and the company had donated Rs 1.5 lakh to a welfareorganisation in the chief minister’s home town.

Union Carbide Corporation also played its full part in the run-up to the tragedy.The Bhopal plant was under-designed and lacked several safety features. It didnot have a computerised early warning system, a standard device in the company’sfactories in the US. The company had not worked out emergency evacuationprocedures with the local community. The plant was not being maintained andoperated at the requisite level of efficiency. Morale was low because sales weredropping and the plant was running at a third of its capacity. Staff strength hadbeen reduced and many engineers and operators had left, making it impossiblefor the existing staff to monitor all the tasks. Many instruments were out of order.Discussion: Which social institutions and organisations play a role in industrialaccidents like the Bhopal disaster? What steps can be taken to prevent suchdisasters?

2018-19


growing demands of intensiveagriculture, industry and urbancentres. Rivers have also been

dammed and diverted, causingirreversible damage to the ecology ofwater basins. Many water bodies in

urban areas have been filled up andbuilt upon, destroying the naturaldrainage of the landscape. Like

groundwater, topsoil too is createdover thousands of years. Thisagricultural resource, too, is being

destroyed due to poor environmentalmanagement leading to erosion,water-logging and salinisation. The

production of bricks for buildinghouses is another reason for the lossof topsoil.

Biodiversity habitats such asforests, grasslands and wetlands are the

other major resource facing rapiddepletion, largely due to the expansionof areas under agriculture. Thoughvarious parts of the globe, includingsome parts of India, appear to haveseen some re-forestation or increase invegetative cover in recent decades, theoverall trend is towards the loss ofbiodiversity. The shrinking of thesehabitats has endangered many species,several of them unique to India. Youmay have read of the recent crisis whenit was discovered that the tigerpopulation had fallen sharply despitestrict laws and large sanctuaries.

B. Pollution

Air pollution is considered to be a majorenvironmental problem in urban andrural areas, causing respiratory and

Deforestation

2018-19


other problems which result in seriousillness and death. The sources of airpollution include emissions fromindustries and vehicles, as well as theburning of wood and coal for domesticuse. We have all heard of pollutionfrom vehicles and factories, and seenpictures of smoking chimneys andexhaust pipes in cars. But we oftendon’t realise that indoor pollution fromcooking fires is also a serious source

of risk. This is particularly true of rural

homes where wood fires using green or

poorly burning wood, badly designed

a result of air pollution exposure. Thisfinding more than doubles previousestimates and confirms that airpollution is now the world’s largestsingle environmental health risk.Reducing air pollution could savemillions of lives. This has enabledscientists to make a more detailedanalysis of health risks from a widerdemographic spread that now includesrural as well as urban areas. In 2012,total 3.3 million deaths linked to indoorair pollution and 2.6 million deaths

related to outdoor air pollution.*

fireplaces (chulhas ), and poor

ventilation combine to put village

women at serious risk because they

do the cooking. WHO reports that in2012 around 7 million people died —one in eight of total global deaths — as

Industrial Pollution

Water pollution is also a very seriousissue affecting surface as well asgroundwater. Major sources includenot only domestic sewage and factoryeffluents but also the runoff from farmswhere large amounts of synthetic

* Weblink: www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2014/air-pollution/en/

2018-19


fertilisers and pesticides are used. Thepollution of rivers and waterbodies is aparticularly important problem.

Cities also suffer from noise

pollution, which has been the subjectof court orders in many cities. Sourcesinclude amplified loudspeakers usedat religious and cultural events,political campaigns, vehicle horns andtraffic, and construction work.

C. Global Warming

The release of particular gases (carbondioxide, methane and others) creates a‘greenhouse’ effect by trapping thesun’s heat and not allowing it todissipate. This has caused a small butsignificant rise in global temperatures.The resulting climate change isprojected to melt polar ice-fields andraise the sea level, thus submerging

low-lying coastal areas, and moreimportant, affecting the ecologicalbalance. Global warming is also likelyto result in greater fluctuations anduncertainty in climates across theworld. China and India areincreasingly significant contributors toworld carbon and greenhouse gasemissions.

D. Genetically Modified Organisms

New techniques of gene-splicing allowscientists to import genes from onespecies into another, introducing newcharacteristics. For instance, genesfrom Bacillus thuringiensis have beenintroduced into cotton species,making it resistant to the bollworm, amajor pest. Genetic modification mayalso be done to shorten growing time,increase size and the shelf-life of crops.

Spraying pesticide in a brinjal field

2018-19


However, little is known about the longterm effects of genetic modification onthose who eat these foods or onecological systems. Agriculturalcompanies can also use geneticmodification to create sterile seeds,preventing farmers from re-using them,and guaranteeing that seeds remaintheir profit-yielding property, forcingfarmers to be dependent on them.

E. Natural and Man-made EnvironmentalDisasters

This is a self-explanatory category. TheBhopal disaster of 1984 killed about4,000 people when a toxic gas leakedfrom the Union Carbide factory, and thetsunami of 2004 killed thousands ofpeople are the most recent examples ofman-made and natural environmentaldisasters.

WHY ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS ARE ALSO

SOCIAL PROBLEMS

How environmental problems affectdifferent groups is a function of socialinequality. Social status and powerdetermine the extent to which peoplecan insulate themselves fromenvironmental crises or overcome it. Insome cases, their ‘solutions’ mayactually worsen environmentaldisparities. In Kutch, Gujarat, wherewater is scarce, richer farmers haveinvested in deep bore tubewells to tapgroundwater to irrigate their fields andgrow cash crops. When the rains fail,the earthen wells of the poorer villagersrun dry and they do not even have waterto drink. At such times, the moist greenfields of the rich farmers seem to mock

them. Certain environmental concernssometimes appear to be universalconcerns, not particular to specificsocial groups. For instance, reducingair pollution or protecting biodiversityseem to be in the public interest. Asociological analysis shows, however,that how public priorities are set andhow they are pursued may not beuniversally beneficial. Securing thepublic interest may actually serve theinterests of particular politically andeconomically powerful groups, or hurtthe interests of the poor and politicallyweak. As the debates over large damsand around protected areas show, theenvironment as a public interest is ahotly contested arena.

The school of social ecologypoints out that social relations, inparticular the organisation of propertyand production, shape environmentalperceptions and practices. Differentsocial groups stand in dif ferentrelationships to the environment andapproach it differently. A ForestDepartment geared to maximisingrevenues from supplying largevolumes of bamboo to the paperindustry will view and use a forest verydif ferently from an artisan whoharvests bamboo to make baskets.Their varied interests and ideologiesgenerate environmental conflicts. Inthis sense, environmental crises havetheir roots in social inequality.Addressing environmental problemsrequires changing environment-society relations, and this in turnrequires efforts to change relationsbetween different social groups — men

2018-19


and women, urban and rural people,landlords and labourers. Changedsocial relations will give rise to differentknowledge systems and modes ofmanaging the environment.

What literally defines social ecologyas “social” is its recognition of theoften overlooked fact that nearly allour present ecological problems arisefrom deep-seated social problems.Conversely, present ecologicalproblems cannot be clearlyunderstood, much less resolved,without resolutely dealing withproblems within society. To make thispoint more concrete: economic,ethnic, cultural, and gender conflicts,among many others, lie at the core ofthe most serious ecologicaldislocations we face today — apart,to be sure, from those that areproduced by natural catastrophes.

Murray Bookchin, politicalphilosopher and founder of the

Institute for Social Ecology

Two examples of environment-society conflicts are given below:

Sustainable Development

The relation between ecology andeconomy has been a complex one. Butone thing is certain that, unless thereis a balance between the two, the futureof humanity will remain bleak. Sincethe last 300 years, the way economicdevelopment has been going on, withits emphasis on controlling the natureand exploiting it ruthlessly for thebenefit of a section of population, hasled to extinction of thousands of speciesof flora and fauna. The emphasis

on non-renewable energy andintroduction of large number of newspecies ostensibly to meet growingdemand of industrial world has playedhavoc with ecology. There is growingconcern worldwide that if the presentpace of depletion of natural resourceand extinction of biodiversity continuesfor some more time, the futuregeneration will have to pay the pricefor it.

“Sustainable development isdevelopment that meets the needs ofthe present without compromising theability of future generations to meettheir own needs. It contains within ittwo key concepts: the concept of needs,in particular the essential needs of theworld’s poor, to which overridingpriority should be given; and the ideaof limitations imposed by the state oftechnology and social organization onthe environment’s ability to meetpresent and future needs.” (BrundtlandReport, October 1987).*

Today the basis of capitalistdevelopment is consumption. Oldthings must be destroyed just for theintroduction of new things so thatpeople continue to consume newindustrial products. “There is growinginequality in the world. No amount ofgrowth and economic prosperity isenough anymore, because aspirationis the new God. This means thatanybody who is poor is marginalisedsimply because they have just not madethe grade. There is no longer space forsuch failure in our brave, newer world.It is about the survival of the fittest, ina way that would have made Darwin

* Presentation of the report, Our Common Future, by Brundtland at a press conferenceorganised by the World Commission on Environment and Development in London,England on 27 April 1987.

2018-19


insane.” (Why shouldn’t I be intolerant?,

Sunita Narain in Down to Earth, 25

January 2016)

We are living in an unequal world

where we want to control resources and

opportunities. The already existing

system of social stratification makes it

only too easy for some sections of

people to control most of the available

resources and opportunities. We have

to make the world worth living not only

for ourselves but for generations to

come. We cannot be ignorant to the

needs of the present nor can we be

oblivious of the needs of the future. We

need to build a society where people

are at par; where there is equitable

distribution of resources; where the

aim is development but one that is

inclusive and not exclusive. This is what

will make us sustainable.

In this light, spearheaded by the

193 member states of United Nations

as well as the global civil society has,

through a deliberative process,

arrived at the 17 “Global Goals” of

sustainable development with 169

targets. These goals to a large extent

derive from the sentiment expressed

often by former United Nations

Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon in his

quote, “there can be no Plan B,

because there is no Planet B”.

Water Parks

Water -starved Vidharbha has agrowing number of water parks andamusement centres. In Shegaon,Buldhana, a religious trust runs a

giant “Meditation Centre andEntertainment Park.” Efforts tomaintain a 30-acre ‘artificial lake’ withinit ran dry this summer. But not beforeuntold amounts of water were wastedin the attempt. Here the entry ticketsare called “donations”. In Yavatmal, aprivate company runs a public lake asa tourist joint. Amravati has two ormore such spots (dry just now). Andthere are others in and around Nagpur.

This, in a region where villages havesometimes got water once in 15 days.And where an ongoing farm crisis hasseen the largest number of farmers’suicides in Maharashtra. “No majorproject for either drinking water orirrigation has been completed inVidharbha in decades,” says Nagpur-based journalist Jaideep Hardikar. Hehas covered the region for years. ShriSingh insists the Fun and Food Villageconserves water. “We use sophisticatedfilter plants to reuse the same water.”But evaporation levels are very high inthis heat. And water is not just used forsports. All the parks use massiveamounts of it for maintaining theirgardens, on sanitation and for theirclientele. “It is a huge waste of water andmoney,” says Vinayak Gaikwad inBuldhana. He is a farmer and a KisanSabha leader in the district. That in theprocess, public resources are so oftenused to boost private profit, angersMr. Gaikwad. “They should instead bemeeting people’s basic water needs.”Back in Bazargaon, sarpanch

Yamunabai Uikey isn’t impressed either.Not by the Fun and Food Village. Nor

2018-19


by other industries that have taken alot but given very little. “What is there inall this for us,” she wants to know. Toget a standard government water projectfor her village, the panchayat has to bear10 per cent of its cost. That’s aroundRs.4.5 lakh. “How can we affordRs.45,000? What is our condition?” Soit’s simply been handed over to acontractor. This could see the projectbuilt. But it will mean more costs in thelong run and less control for a village ofso many poor and landless people. Inthe Park, Gandhi’s portrait still smilesout of the office as we leave. Seeminglyat the ‘Snowdome’ across the parkinglot. An odd fate for the man who said:“Live simply, that others mightsimply live.”

(P. Sainath in The Hindu, June 22, 2005.)

‘God forbid that India should evertake to industrialism in the mannerof the West. The economicimperialism of a single tiny islandkingdom (England) is today keepingthe world in chains. If an entirenation of 300 million took to similareconomic exploitation, it would stripthe world bare like locusts.’

— Mahatma Gandhi

As a consequence of developmentslike the water park described above,small farmers in areas of drylandagriculture now find life increasinglyimpossible. Over the last six years,reports indicate that thousands offarmers in Andhra Pradesh, Karnatakaand Maharashtra have killedthemselves, often by drinking pesticide.What drives farmers, people who

stoically deal with the uncertaintiesinherent in agriculture, to this extremestep? The investigation of journalist P.Sainath shows that farmers’ recentdistress is due to a fusion ofenvironmental and economic factors.Agrarian conditions have become morevolatile as farmers are exposed to thefluctuations of the world market andas government support for smallfarmers declines due to liberalisationpolicies. Cotton farmers grow a high-risk, high-return crop. Cotton needssome irrigation. It is also verysusceptible to pest infestation. Cottongrowers thus need capital to invest inirrigation and pest control. Both ofthese inputs have become moreexpensive over the years: high levelsof extraction have depleted waterreserves so farmers have to drill deeper,and pests have become resistant tomany pesticides, requiring farmers tospray new pesticides, more frequently.Farmers in need of credit to purchasethese inputs end up approachingprivate moneylenders and traders whocharge them high rates of interest. Ifthe crop fails, the farmer can’t repaythe money. Not only can they not feedtheir families, they cannot fulfil familyobligations like arranging children’smarriages. Faced with financial andsocial ruin, many farmers havenowhere to turn. Suicide seems to bethe only way out to them.Discussion: Is water scarcity naturalor human-made? What social factorsshape how water is allocated amongdifferent users? How do differentpatterns of water-use affect differentsocial groups?

2018-19


Activity 2

Find out how much water your

household uses in a day. Try and find

out how much water is used by

comparable households belonging to

different income groups. How much

time and money do dif ferent

households spend on getting water?

Within the household, whose job is

it to collect water? How much water

does the government provide to

different classes of people?

The Urban Environment: A Tale ofTwo Cities

Here is a typical conflict over the urbanenvironment. On the morning of30 January 1995, Delhi was wakingup to another chilly winter day.Imagine the well-to-do colony of AshokVihar in north Delhi, posh housesshrouded in grey mist, early riserssetting off on morning walks, somewith their pet dogs — Pomeraniansand Alsatians, straining at the leash.As one of these morning walkersentered the neighbourhood ‘park’, theonly open area in the locality, he sawa young man, poorly clad, walkingaway with an empty bottle in hand.Outraged, he caught hold of the manand called out to his neighbours.Someone phoned the police. A groupof enraged house-owners and twopolice constables descended on theyouth and, within minutes, beat himto death.

The young man was eighteen year-old Dilip, a visitor to Delhi, who hadcome to watch the Republic Day

parade in the capital. He was stayingwith his uncle in a jhuggi (shantyhouse) along the railway tracksbordering Ashok Vihar. His uncleworked as a labourer in the Wazirpurindustrial estate nearby. Like all otherplanned industrial areas in Delhi,Wazirpur too has no provision forworkers’ housing. The jhuggi clusterwith more than 10,000 householdsshared three public toilets, each onewith eight latrines, effectively one toiletbetween more than 2000 persons. Formost residents, then, any large openspace, under cover of dark, became aplace to defecate. Their use of the ‘park’brought the industrial workers andtheir families up against the moreaffluent residents of the area who paidto have a wall constructed between thedirty, unsightly jhuggis and their ownhomes. The wall was soon breached,to allow the traffic of domestic workerswho lived in the jhuggis but worked toclean the homes and cars of the rich,and to offer access to the delinquentdefecators.

Dilip’s death was thus theculmination of a long-standing battleover a contested space that, to one setof residents, embodied their sense ofgracious urban living, a place of treesand grass devoted to leisure andrecreation, and that to another set ofresidents, was the only available spacethat could be used as a toilet. If he hadknown this history of simmering conflict,Dilip would probably have been morewary and would have run away whenchallenged, and perhaps he would stillbe alive. The violence did not end there.

2018-19


When a group of people from thejhuggis gathered to protest against thiskilling, the police opened fire and killedfour more people.

As cities grow, the conflict overurban space is becoming more acute.While migrants come to the city insearch of work, they cannot affordscarce legal housing and are forced tosettle on public lands. This land is nowin great demand to build infrastructurefor affluent residents and visitors —malls and multiplexes, hotels andtourist sites. As a result, poor workersand their families are being evicted tothe outskirts of the city and their homesdemolished. Besides land, air andwater have also become highlycontested resources in the urbanenvironment.

(Taken from: Amita Baviskar in‘Between Violence and Desire: Space,Power and Identity in the Making ofMetropolitan Delhi’ in International

Social Science Journal. 175: 89-98.2003)Discussion: Why do the urban pooroften live in slums? Which socialgroups control landed property andhousing in the city? What social factorsaffect people’s access to water andsanitation?

Activity 3

Imagine that you were a fifteenyear-old girl or boy living in a slum.What would your family do and howwould you live? Write a short essaydescribing a day in your life.

GLOSSARY

Hydrology: The science of water and its flows; or the broad structure of waterresources in a country or region.

Deforestation: The loss of forest area due to cutting down of trees and/ortaking over of the land for other purposes, usually cultivation.

Green House: A covered structure for protecting plants from extremes ofclimate, usually from excessive cold; a green house (also called a hot house)maintains a warmer temperature inside compared to the outside temperature.

Emissions: Waste gases given off by a human-initiated process, usually in thecontext of industries or vehicles.

Effluents: Waste materials in fluid form produced from industrial processes.

Aquifers: Natural underground formations in the geology of a region wherewater gets stored.

Monoculture: When the plant life in a locality or region is reduced to a singlevariety.

2018-19


EXERCISES

1. Describe in your own words what you understand by the term ‘ecology’.

2. Why is ecology not limited only to the forces of nature?

3. Describe the two-way process by which ‘social environments’ emerge.

4. Why and how does social organisation shape the relationship between theenvironment and society?

5. Why is environmental management a complex and huge task for society?

6. What are some of the important forms of pollution-related environmentalhazards?

7. What are the major environmental issues associated with resourcedepletion?

8. Explain why environmental problems are simultaneously social problems.

9. What is meant by social ecology?

10. Describe some environment related conflicts that you know of or have readabout. (Other than the examples in the text.)

REFERENCES

Centre for Science and Environment. 1982. The State of India’s Environment:

The Citizens’ Report. CSE, New Delhi.

DAVIS, MIKE. 2004. ‘Planet of Slums: Urban Involution and the Informal Proletariat’in New Left Review, 26: 5-34.

DAVIS, MIKE. 2004. ‘The Political Ecology of Famine: The Origins of the Third World’in Richard Peet and Michael Watts (eds) Liberation Ecologies: Environment,

Development, Social Movements. Routledge (second edition), London.

GADGIL, MADHAV and RAMACHANDRA GUHA. 1995. Ecology and Equity: The Use and

Abuse of Nature in Contemporary India. Penguin, New Delhi.

GUHA, RAMACHANDRA. 1997. ‘The Environmentalism of the Poor’ in RamachandraGuha and J. Martinez-Alier. Varieties of Environmentalism: Essays North and

South. Oxford University Press, Delhi.

NARAIN, SUNITA. 2016. ‘Why shouldn’t I be Intolerant’. Down to Earth. Availableat: http://www.downtoearth.org.in (accessed on 25 January 2016)

POLLAN, MICHAEL. 2001. The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World.

Random House, New York.

2018-19


CHAPTER 4

INTRODUCING WESTERN SOCIOLOGISTS

Sociology is sometimes called the childof the ‘age of revolution’. This is becauseit was born in 19th century WesternEurope, after revolutionary changes inthe preceding three centuries thatdecisively changed the way people lived.Three revolutions paved the way for theemergence of sociology: theEnlightenment, or the scientificrevolution; the French Revolution; andthe Industrial Revolution. Theseprocesses completely transformed notonly European society, but also the restof the world as it came into contact withEurope.

In this chapter the key ideas ofthree sociological thinkers: KarlMarx, Emile Durkheim and MaxWeber will be discussed. As part ofthe classical tradition of sociology,they laid the foundation of thesubject. Their ideas and insightshave remained relevant even in thecontemporary period. Of course,these ideas have also been subjectedto criticism and have undergonemajor modifications. But since ideasabout society are themselvesinfluenced by social conditions, we

begin with a few words about thecontext in which sociology emerged.

THE CONTEXT OF SOCIOLOGY

The modern era in Europe and theconditions of modernity that we takefor granted today were brought aboutby three major processes. These were:the Enlightenment or dawning of the‘age of reason’; the quest for politicalsovereignty embodied in the FrenchRevolution; and the system of massmanufacture inaugurated by theIndustrial Revolution. Since thesehave been discussed at length inChapter 1 of Introducing Sociology,here we will only mention some of theintellectual consequences of thesemomentous changes.

Activity 1

Revisit the discussion of the comingof the modern age in Europe inChapter 1 of Introducing Sociology.What sorts of changes were thesethree processes associated with?

2018-19

67INTRODUCING WESTERN SOCIOLOGISTS

The Enlightenment

During the late 17th and 18thcenturies, Western Europe saw theemergence of radically new ways ofthinking about the world. Refered toas ‘The Enlightenment’, these newphilosophies established the humanbeing at the centre of the universe, andrational thought as the central featureof the human being. The ability tothink rationally and criticallytransformed the individual humanbeing into both the producer and theuser of all knowledge, the ‘knowingsubject’. On the other hand, onlypersons who could think and reasoncould be considered as fully human.Those who could not remaineddeficient as human beings and wereconsidered as not fully evolvedhumans, as in the case of the nativesof primitive societies or ‘savages’.Being the handiwork of humans,society was amenable to rationalanalysis and thus comprehensible toother humans. For reason to becomethe defining feature of the humanworld, it was necessary to displacenature, religion and the divine acts ofgods from the central position theyhad in earlier ways of understandingthe world. This means that theEnlightenment was made possible by,and in turn helped to develop,attitudes of mind that we refer to todayas secular, scientific and humanistic.

The French Revolution

The French Revolution (1789)announced the arrival of political

sovereignty at the level of individualsas well as nation-states. TheDeclaration of Human Rightsasserted the equality of all citizensand questioned the legitimacy ofprivileges inherited by birth. Itsignaled the emancipation of theindividual from the oppressive rule ofthe religious and feudal institutionsthat dominated France before theRevolution. The peasants, most ofwhom were serfs (or bondedlabourers) tied to landed estatesowned by members of the aristocracy,were freed of their bonds. Thenumerous taxes paid by the peasantsto the feudal lords and to the churchwere cancelled. As free citizens of therepublic, sovereign individuals wereinvested with rights and were equalbefore the law and other institutionsof the state. The state had to respectthe privacy of the autonomousindividual and its laws could notintrude upon the domestic life of thepeople. A separation was builtbetween the public realm of the stateand a private realm of the household.New ideas about what wasappropriate to the public and privatespheres developed. For example,religion and the family became more‘private’ while education (speciallyschooling) became more ‘public’.Moreover, the nation-state itself wasalso redefined as a sovereign entitywith a centralised government. Theideals of the French Revolution —liberty, equality and fraternity —became the watchwords of themodern state.

2018-19


The Industrial Revolution

The foundations of modern industrywere laid by the IndustrialRevolution, which began in Britainin the late 18th and early 19thcenturies. It had two major aspects.The f irst was the systematicapplication of science and technologyto industrial production, particularlythe invention of new machines andthe harnessing of new sources ofpower. Secondly, the industrialrevolution also evolved new ways oforganising labour and markets on ascale larger than anything in thepast. New machines l ike theSpinning Jenny (which greatlyincreased the productivity of thetextile industry) and new methods ofobtaining power (such as the variousversions of the steam engine)facilitated the production processand gave rise to the factory systemand mass manufacture of goods.These goods were now produced ona gigantic scale for distant marketsacross the world. The raw materialsused in their production were alsoobtained from all over the world.Modern large scale industry thusbecame a world wide phenomenon.

These changes in the productionsystem also resulted in major changesin social life. The factories set up inurban areas were manned by workerswho were uprooted from the ruralareas and came to the cities in searchof work. Low wages at the factory

meant that men, women and evenchildren had to work long hours inhazardous circumstances to eke outa living. Modern industry enabled theurban to dominate over the rural.Cities and towns became thedominant forms of humansettlement, housing large andunequal populations in small,densely populated urban areas. Therich and powerful lived in the cities,but so did the working classes wholived in slums amidst poverty andsqualor. Modern forms of governance,with the state assuming control ofhealth, sanitation, crime control andgeneral ‘development’ created thedemand for new kinds of knowledge.The social sciences and particularlysociology emerged partly as aresponse to this need.

From the outset sociologicalthought was concerned with thescientific analysis of developments inindustrial society. This has promptedobservers to argue that sociology wasthe ‘science of the new industrialsociety’. Empirically informedscientific discussion about trends insocial behaviour only becamepossible with the advent of modernindustrial society. The scientificinformation generated by the state tomonitor and maintain the health ofits social body became the basis forreflection on society. Sociologicaltheory was the result of this self-reflection.

2018-19


he engaged in a critical analysis ofcapitalist society to expose itsweaknesses and bring about itsdownfall. Marx argued that humansociety had progressed throughdifferent stages. These were: primitivecommunism, slavery, feudalism andcapitalism. Capitalism was the latestphase of human advancement, butMarx believed that it would give wayto socialism.

Karl Marx was from Germany butspent most of his intellectuallyproductive years in exile in Britain.His radical political views led him tobe exiled from Germany, France andAustria. Though Marx had studiedphilosophy he was not a philosopher.He was a social thinker who advocatedan end to oppression and exploitation.He believed that scientific socialismwould achieve this goal. To that end

Karl Marx (1818-1883)

Biography

Karl Marx was born on 5 May 1818 in Trier, part ofthe Rhineland province of Prussia in Germany. Sonof a prosperous liberal lawyer.

1834-36: Studied law at the University of Bonn andthen at the University of Berlin, where hewas much influenced by the YoungHegelians.

1841: Completed his doctoral thesis inphilosophy from the University of Jena.

1843: Married Jenny von Westphalen and movedto Paris.

1844: Met Friedrich Engels in Paris, who became a lifelong friend.

1847: Invited by the International Working Men’s Association to prepare adocument spelling out its aims and objectives. This was written jointlyby Marx and Engels and published as the Manifesto of the Communist

Party (1948)

1849: Exiled to England and lived there till his death.

1852: The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (published).

1859: A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (published).

1867: Capital, Vol. I, published.

1881: Death of Jenny von Westphalen.

1883: Marx dies and is buried in London’s Highgate Cemetery.

2018-19


Capitalist society was marked byan ever intensifying process ofalienation operating at several levels.First, modern capitalist society is onewhere humans are more alienatedfrom nature than ever before; second,human beings are alienated from eachother as capitalism individualisespreviously collective forms of socialorganisation, and as relationships getmore and more market-mediated.Third, the large mass of workingpeople is alienated from the fruits ofits labour because workers do not ownthe products they produce. Moreover,workers have no control over the workprocess itself — unlike in the dayswhen skilled craftsmen controlledtheir own labour, today the content ofthe factory worker’s working day isdecided by the management. Finally,as the combined result of all thesealienations, human beings are alsoalienated from themselves andstruggle to make their lives meaningfulin a system where they are both morefree but also more alienated and lessin control of their lives than before.

However, even though it was anexploitative and oppressive system,Marx believed that capitalism wasnevertheless a necessary andprogressive stage of human historybecause it created the preconditionsfor an egalitarian future free from bothexploitation and poverty. Capitalistsociety would be transformed by itsvictims, i.e. the working class, whowould unite to collectively bring abouta revolution to overthrow it andestablish a free and equal socialist

society. In order to understand theworking of capitalism, Marx undertookan elaborate study of its political,social and specially its economicaspects.

Marx’s conception of the economywas based on the notion of a mode ofproduction, which stood for a broadsystem of production associated withan epoch or historical period. Primitivecommunism, slavery, feudalism andcapitalism were all modes ofproduction. At this general level, themode of production defines an entireway of life characteristic of an era. Ata more specific level, we can think ofthe mode of production as beingsomething like a building in the sensethat it consists of a foundation or base,and a superstructure or somethingerected on top of the base. The base —or economic base — is primarilyeconomic and includes the productiveforces and production relations.Productive forces refer to all the meansor factors of production such as land,labour, technology, sources of energy(such as electricity, coal, petroleum andso on). Production relations refer toall the economic relationships andforms of labour organisation which areinvolved in production. Productionrelations are also property relations, orrelationships based on the ownershipor control of the means of production.

For example, in the mode ofproduction called primitivecommunism, the productive forcesconsisted mostly of nature — forests,land, animals and so on — along withvery rudimentary forms of technology

2018-19


like simple stone tools and huntingweapons. Production relations werebased on community property (sinceindividual private property did not yetexist) and included tribal forms ofhunting or gathering which were theprevalent forms of labourorganisation.

The economic base thus consistedof productive forces and relations ofproduction. On this base rested allthe social, cultural and politicalinstitutions of society. Thus,institutions like religion, art, law,literature or different forms of beliefsand ideas were all part of the‘superstructure’ which was built ontop of the base. Marx argued thatpeople’s ideas and beliefs originatedfrom the economic system of whichthey were part. How human beingsearned their livelyhood determinedhow they thought — material lifeshaped ideas, ideas did not shapematerial life. This argument wentagainst the dominant ways of thinkingin Marx’s time, when it was commonto argue that human beings were freeto think whatever they wanted andthat ideas shaped the world.

Marx placed great emphasis oneconomic structures and processesbecause he believed that they formedthe foundations of every social systemthroughout human history. If weunderstand how the economy worksand how it has been changing in thepast, he argued, we can learn how tochange society in the future. But howcan such change be brought about?Marx’s answer: through class struggle.

CLASS STRUGGLE

For Marx, the most important methodof classifying people into social groupswas with reference to the productionprocess, rather than religion, language,nationality or similar identities. Heargued that people who occupy thesame position in the social productionprocess will eventually form a class. Byvirtue of their location in theproduction process and in propertyrelations, they share the same interestsand objectives, even though they maynot recognise this immediately.Classes are formed through historicalprocesses, which are in turn shapedby transformations in the conditionsand forces of production, andconsequent conflicts between alreadyexisting classes. As the mode ofproduction — that is, the productiontechnology and the social relations ofproduction — changes, conflictsdevelop between different classes whichresult in struggles. For example, thecapitalist mode of production creates theworking class, which is a new urban,property-less group created by thedestruction of the feudal agriculturalsystem. Serfs and small peasants werethrown off their lands and deprived oftheir earlier sources of livelyhood. Theythen congregated in cities looking forways to survive, and the pressure of thelaws and police forced them to work inthe newly built factories. Thus a largenew social group was created consistingof property-less people who were forcedto work for their living. This sharedlocation within the production processmakes workers into a class.

2018-19


Marx was a proponent of classstruggle. He believed that classstruggle was the major driving forceof change in society. In The Communist

Manifesto (which was also aprogramme of action), Marx andEngels presented their views in a clearand concise manner. Its opening linesdeclare, ‘The history of all hithertoexisting societies is the history of classstruggle’. They went on to trace thecourse of human history anddescribed how the nature of the classstruggle varied in different historicalepochs. As society evolved from theprimitive to the modern throughdistinct phases, each characterised byparticular kinds of conflict between theoppressor and oppressed classes.Marx and Engels wrote, ‘Freeman andslave, patrician and plebeian, lord andserf, guild master and journeyman, ina word, oppressor and oppressed,stood in constant opposition to oneanother, carried out an uninterrupted,

now hidden, now open fight’. Themajor opposing classes of each stagewere identified from the contradictionsof the production process. Incapitalism the bourgeoisie (orcapitalists) owned all the means ofproduction, (such as investible capital,existing factories and machinery, landand so on). On the other hand, theworking class lost all the means ofproduction that it owned (or hadaccess to) in the past. Thus, in thecapitalist social system, workers hadno choice but to sell their labour forwages in order to survive, because theyhad nothing else.

Even when two classes areobjectively opposed to each other, theydo not automatically engage inconflict. For conflict to occur it isnecessary for them to becomesubjectively conscious of their classinterests and identities, and thereforealso of their rivals’ interests andidentities. It is only after this kind of

Activity 2

Although it is also called a ‘class’, does the group formed by you and your classmatesform a class in the marxian sense? What arguments can you give in favour andagainst this view? Do factory workers and agricultural workers belong to the sameclass? What about workers and managers working in the same factory — do theyboth belong to the same class? Does a rich industrialist or factory owner wholives in the city and owns no agricultural land belong to the same class as a pooragricultural labourer who lives in the village and owns no land? What about alandlord who owns a lot of land and a small peasant who owns a small piece ofland — do they belong to the same class if they live in the same village and areboth landowners?

Think carefully about the reasons for your responses to these examples.[Suggestion: Try to imagine what interests the people mentioned in these examplesmay have in common; think of the position they occupy in the larger social system,particularly in relation to the production process.]

2018-19


Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

Emile Durkheim was born on April 15, 1858 in Epinal in theLorraine region of France on the German border. He was froman orthodox Jewish family; his father, grandfather and greatgrandfather were all rabbis or Jewish priests. Emile too wasinitially sent to a school for training rabbis.

1876: Enters the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris to studyphilosophy.

1887: Appointed lecturer in social sciences and educationat the University of Bordeaux.

1893: Publishes Division of Labour in Society, his doctoraldissertation.

1895: Publishes Rules of Sociological Method.

1897: Founds Anee Sociologique,the first social science journal in France; andpublishes his famous study, Suicide.

1902: Joins the University of Paris as the Chair of Education. Later in 1913 theChair was renamed Education and Sociology.

1912: Publishes The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life.

1917: Dies at the age of 59, heartbroken by the death of his son, Andre in WorldWar I.

‘class consciousness’ is developedthrough political mobilisation thatclass conflicts occur. Such conflictscan lead to the overthrow of adominant or ruling class (or coalitionof classes) by the previouslydominated or subordinated classes —this is called a revolution. In Marx’stheory, economic processes createdcontradictions which in turngenerated class conflict. But economicprocesses did not automatically leadto revolution — social and politicalprocesses were also needed to bringabout a total transformation of society.

The presence of ideology is onereason why the relationship betweeneconomic and socio-political processesbecomes complicated. In every epoch,the ruling classes promote a dominantideology. This dominant ideology, or

way of seeing the world, tends to justifythe domination of the ruling class andthe existing social order. For example,dominant ideologies may encouragepoor people to believe that they are poornot because they are exploited by therich but because of ‘fate’, or because ofbad deeds in a previous life, and so on.However, dominant ideologies are notalways successful, and they can also bechallenged by alternative worldviews orrival ideologies. As consciousnessspreads unevenly among classes, howa class will act in a particular historicalsituation cannot be pre-determined.Hence, according to Marx, economicprocesses generally tend to generateclass conflicts, though this also dependson political and social conditions. Givenfavourable conditions, class conflictsculminate in revolutions.

2018-19


Emile Durkheim may be consideredas the founder of sociology as a formaldiscipline as he was the first to becomea Professor of Sociology in Paris in1913. Born into an orthodox Jewishfamily, Durkheim was sent to arabbinical school (a Jewish religiousschool) for his early education. By thetime he entered the Ecole NormaleSuperieure in 1876 he broke with hisreligious orientation and declaredhimself an agnostic. However, hismoral upbringing had an enduringinfluence on his sociological thinking.The moral codes were the keycharacteristics of a society thatdetermined the behaviour patterns ofindividuals. Coming from a religiousfamily, Durkheim cherished the ideaof developing a secular understandingof religion. It was in his last book, The

Elementary Forms of Religious Life thathe was finally able to fulfil this wish.

Society was for Durkheim a socialfact which existed as a moralcommunity over and above theindividual. The ties that bound peoplein groups were crucial to the existenceof society. These ties or socialsolidarities exerted pressure onindividuals to conform to the normsand expectations of the group. Thisconstrained the individual’s behaviourpattern, limiting variation within asmall range. Constriction of choice insocial action meant that behaviourcould now be predicted as it followeda pattern. So by observing behaviourpatterns it was possible to identify thenorms, codes and social solidaritieswhich governed them. Thus, the

existence of otherwise ‘invisible’ thingslike ideas, norms, values and so oncould be empirically verified bystudying the patterns of socialbehaviour of people as they related toeach other in a society.

For Durkheim the social was to befound in the codes of conduct imposedon individuals by collective agreement.It was evident in the practices ofeveryday life. The scientificunderstanding of society thatDurkheim sought to develop wasbased on the recognition of moralfacts. He wrote, ‘Moral facts arephenomena like others; they consistof rules of action recognizable bycertain distinctive characteristics, itmust then be possible to observethem, describe them, classify themand look for certain laws explainingthem’ (Durkheim 1964: 32). Moralcodes were manifestations ofparticular social conditions. Hencethe morality appropriate for onesociety was inappropriate for another.So for Durkheim, the prevailing socialconditions could be deduced from themoral codes. This made sociology akinto the natural sciences and was inkeeping with his larger objective of

establishing sociology as a rigorousscientific discipline.

DURKHEIM’S VISION OF SOCIOLOGY

Durkheim’s vision of sociology as anew scientific discipline wascharacterised by two definingfeatures. First, the subject matter ofsociology — the study of social facts— was dif ferent from the other

2018-19


sciences. Sociology concerned itselfexclusively with what he called the‘emergent’ level, that is, the level ofcomplex collective life where socialphenomena can emerge. Thesephenomena — for example, socialinstitutions like religion or the family,or social values like friendship orpatriotism etc. — were only possiblein a complex whole that was largerthan (and dif ferent from) itsconstituent parts. Although it iscomposed entirely of individuals, acollective social entity like a footballor cricket team becomes somethingother than and much more than justa collection of eleven persons. Socialentities like teams, political parties,street gangs, religious communities,nations and so on belong to a differentlevel of reality than the level ofindividuals. It is this ‘emergent’ levelthat sociology studies.

The second defining feature ofDurkheim’s vision of sociology was that,like most of the natural sciences, it wasto be an empirical discipline. This wasactually a difficult claim to makebecause social phenomena are by theirvery nature abstract. We cannot ‘see’ acollective entity like the Jaincommunity, or the Bengali (orMalayalam or Marathi) speakingcommunity, or the Nepalese or Egyptiannational communities. At least, wecannot see them in the samestraightforward way that we can see atree or a boy or a cloud. Even when thesocial phenomenon is small — like afamily or a theatre group — we candirectly see only the individuals who

make up the collectivity; we cannot seethe collectivity itself. One of Durkheim’smost significant achievements is hisdemonstration that sociology, adiscipline that dealt with abstractentities like social facts, couldnevertheless be a science founded onobservable, empirically verifiableevidence. Although not directlyobservable, social facts were indirectlyobservable through patterns ofbehaviour. The most famous exampleof his use of a new kind of empiricaldata is in his study of Suicide. Althougheach individual case of suicide wasspecific to the individual and his/hercircumstances, the average rate ofsuicide aggregated across hundreds ofthousands of individuals in acommunity was a social fact. Thus,social facts could be observed via socialbehaviour, and specially aggregatedpatterns of social behaviour.

So what are ‘social facts’? Socialfacts are like things. They are externalto the individual but constrain theirbehaviour. Institutions like law,education and religion constitutesocial facts. Social facts are collectiverepresentations which emerge fromthe association of people. They are notparticular to a person but of a generalnature, independent of the individual.Attributes like beliefs, feelings orcollective practices are examples.

Division of Labour in Society

In his first book, Division of Labour in

Society, Durkheim demonstrated hismethod of analysis to explain theevolution of society from the primitive

2018-19


to the modern. He classified a societyby the nature of social solidarity whichexisted in that society. He argued thatwhile a primitive society was organisedaccording to ‘mechanical’ solidarity,modern society was based on ‘organic’solidarity. Mechanical solidarity isfounded on the similarity of itsindividual members and is found insocieties with small populations. Ittypically involves a collection of differentself-sufficient groups where each personwithin a particular group is engaged insimilar activities or functions. As thesolidarity or ties between people arebased on similarity and personalrelationships, such societies are not verytolerant of differences and any violationof the norms of the community attractsharsh punishment. In other words,mechanical solidarity based societieshave repressive laws designed to preventdeviation from community norms. Thiswas because the individual and thecommunity were so tightly integratedthat it was feared that any violation ofcodes of conduct could result in thedisintegration of the community.

Organic solidarity characterisesmodern society and is based on theheterogeneity of its members. It isfound in societies with largepopulations, where most socialrelationships necessarily have to beimpersonal. Such a society is basedon institutions, and each of itsconstituent groups or units is not self-sufficient but dependent on otherunits/groups for their survival.Interdependence is the essence oforganic solidarity. It celebrates

individuals and allows for their needto be different from each other, andrecognises their multiple roles andorganic ties. The laws of modernsociety are ‘restitutive’ in nature ratherthan ‘repressive’. This means that inmodern societies, the law aims torepair or correct the wrong that is doneby a criminal act. By contrast, inprimitive societies the law sought topunish wrong doers and enforced asort of collective revenge for their acts.In modern society the individual wasgiven some autonomy, whereas inprimitive societies the individual wastotally submerged in the collectivity.

A characteristic feature of modernsocieties is that individuals withsimilar goals come together voluntarilyto form groups and associations. Asthese are groups oriented towardsspecific goals, they remain distinctfrom each other and do not seek totake over the entire life of its members.Thus, individuals have many differentidentities in different contexts. Thisenables individuals to emerge from theshadow of the community andestablish their distinct identity interms of the functions they performand the roles they play. Since allindividuals have to depend on othersfor the fulfilment of their basic needslike food, clothing, shelter andeducation, their intensity ofinteraction with others increases.Impersonal rules and regulations arerequired to govern social relations insuch societies because personalisedrelations can no longer be maintainedin a large population.

2018-19


The Division of Labour in Society

provides a good preview ofDurkheim’s enduring concerns. Hisef fort to create a new scientificdiscipline with a distinct subjectwhich can be empirically validated isclearly manifested in the way he

discusses the different types of socialsolidarity as social facts. His objectiveand secular analysis of the social tieswhich underlie different types ofsociety laid the foundation ofsociology as the new science ofsociety.

Max Weber (1864-1920)

Max Weber was born on 21 April, 1864 in Erfurt,Germany into a Prussian family. His father was amagistrate and a politician who was an ardentmonarchist and follower of Bismarck. His mother wasfrom a distinguished liberal family from Heidelberg.

1882: Went to Heidelberg to study law.

1884-84: Studied at the universities of Gottingenand Berlin.

1889: Submitted his doctoral dissertation on AContribution to the History of Medieval

Business Organisations.

1891: Submitted his habilitation thesis (entitlinghim to be a teacher) on Roman Agrarian

History and the Significance for Public and

Private Law.

1893: Married Marianne Schnitger.

1894-96: Appointed Professor of Economics first at Freiburg, and then Heidelberg.

1897-1901: Has a nervous breakdown and falls ill; unable to work, travels to Rome.

1901: Weber resumes scholarly work.

1903: Became the Associate Editor of the journal Archives for Social Science

and Social Welfare.

1904: Travels to the USA. Publishes The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of

Capitalism.

1918: Takes up a specially created chair in Sociology at Vienna.

1919: Appointed Professor of Economics at the University of Munich.

1920: Weber dies.Almost all of his major works which made him famous were translatedand published in book form only after his death. These include: The

Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1930), From Max Weber:

Essays in Sociology (1946), Max Weber on the Methodology of the Social

Sciences (1949), The Religion of India (1958) and Economy and Society

(3 vols, 1968).

2018-19


Activity 3

Try to compare what Durkheim and Marx say about the social division of labour.They both agree that as society evolves, the social organisation of productiongrows more complex, the division of labour becomes more detailed, and this createsunavoidable interdependencies among different social groups. But where Durkheimemphasises solidarity, Marx emphasises conflict. What do you think about this?

Can you think of reasons why Marx may be wrong about modern society? Forexample, can you think of situations or examples where people are joining togetherto form groups or collectivities despite being from different class backgroundsand having conflicting interests? What counter arguments could you give topersuade someone that Marx may still have a point?

Can you think of reasons why Durkheim may be wrong about modern societygiving more freedom to the individual? For example, isn’t it true that the spreadof mass communication (specially through television) has tended to standardisepopular fashion in things like clothes or music? Today, young people in differentsocial groups, different countries, states or regions are now more likely to belistening to the same music, or wearing the same kind of clothes than ever before.Does this make Durkheim wrong? What could be the arguments for and againstin this context?

Remember, sociology is not like mathematics where there is usually only oneright answer. In anything to do with society and human beings, it is possible thatthere are many right answers, or that an answer is right in one context but wrongin another, or that it is partly right and partly wrong, and so on. In other words,the social world is very complex, and it changes from time to time and from placeto place. This makes it all the more important to learn how to think carefullyabout the reasons why a particular answer may be right or wrong in a particularcontext.

Max Weber was one of the leadingGerman social thinkers of his time.Despite long periods of physical and

mental ill health, he has left a richlegacy of sociological writing. He wroteextensively on many subjects but

focused on developing an interpretivesociology of social action and of powerand domination. Another major

concern of Weber was the process ofrationalisation in modern society andthe relationship of the various

religions of the world with this process.

Max Weber and Interpretive Sociology

Weber argued that the overall objectiveof the social sciences was to developan ‘interpretive understanding of socialaction’. These sciences were thus verydifferent from the natural sciences,which aimed to discover the objective‘laws of nature’ governing the physicalworld. Since the central concern of thesocial sciences was with social actionand since human actions necessarilyinvolved subjective meanings, themethods of enquiry of social science

2018-19


also had to be different from themethods of natural science. For Weber,‘social action’ included all humanbehaviour that was meaningful, thatis, action to which actors attached ameaning. In studying social action thesociologist’s task was to recover themeanings attributed by the actor. Toaccomplish this task the sociologisthad to put themselves in the actor’splace, and imagine what thesemeanings were or could have been.Sociology was thus a systematic formof ‘empathetic understanding’, that is,an understanding based not on‘feeling for’ (sympathy) but ‘feelingwith’ (empathy). The empathic (orempathetic) understanding whichsociologists derive from this exerciseenables them to access the subjectivemeanings and motivations of socialactors.

Weber was among the first todiscuss the special and complex kindof ‘objectivity’ that the social scienceshad to cultivate. The social world wasfounded on subjective humanmeanings, values, feelings, prejudices,ideals and so on. In studying thisworld, the social sciences inevitablyhad to deal with these subjectivemeanings. In order to capture thesemeanings and describe themaccurately, social scientists had toconstantly practise ‘empatheticunderstanding’ by putting themselves(imaginatively) in the place of thepeople whose actions they werestudying. But this investigation hadto be done objectively even though itwas concerned with subjective matters.

Thus, ‘empathetic understanding’required the sociologist to faithfullyrecord the subjective meanings andmotivations of social actors withoutallowing his/her own personal beliefsand opinions to influence this processin any way. In other words, sociologistswere meant to describe, not judge, thesubjective feelings of others. Webercalled this kind of objectivity ‘valueneutrality’. The sociologist mustneutrally record subjective valueswithout being affected by her/his ownfeelings/opinions about these values.Weber recognised that this was verydifficult to do because social scientistswere also members of society andalways had their own subjectivebeliefs and prejudices. However, theyhad to practise great self-discipline —exercise an ‘iron will’ as he puts it —in order to remain ‘value neutral’ whendescribing the values and worldviewsof others.

Apart from empathetic under-standing, Weber also suggestedanother methodological tool for doingsociology — the ‘ideal type’. An idealtype is a logically consistent model of asocial phenomenon that highlights itsmost significant characteristics. Beinga conceptual tool designed to helpanalysis, it is not meant to be an exactreproduction of reality. Ideal typesmay exaggerate some features ofphenomenon that are considered to beanalytically important, and ignore ordownplay others. Obviously an idealtype should correspond to reality in abroad sense, but its main job is toassist analysis by bringing out

2018-19


important features and connections ofthe social phenomenon being studied.An ideal type is to be judged by howhelpful it is for analysis andunderstanding, not by how accurate ordetailed a description it provides.

The ideal type was used by Weberto analyse the relationship betweenthe ethics of ‘world religions’ and therationalisation of the social world indifferent civilisations. It was in thiscontext that Weber suggested thatethics of certain Protestant sectswithin Christianity had a deepinfluence on the development ofcapitalism in Europe.

Weber again used the ideal type toillustrate the three types of authoritythat he defined as traditional,charismatic and rational-legal. Whilethe source of traditional authority wascustom and precedence, charismaticauthority derived from divine sourcesor the ‘gift of grace’, and rational-legalauthority was based on legaldemarcation of authority. Rational-legal authority which prevailed inmodern times was epitomised in thebureaucracy.

Bureaucracy

It was a mode of organisation whichwas premised on the separation of thepublic from the domestic world. Thismeant that behaviour in the publicdomain was regulated by explicit rulesand regulations. Moreover, as a publicinstitution, bureaucracy restricted thepower of the officials in regard to theirresponsibilities and did not provideabsolute power to them.

Bureaucratic authority ischaracterised by these features:(i) Functioning of Officials;(ii) Hierarchical Ordering of Positions;(iii) Reliance on Written Document(iv) Office Management; and(v) Conduct in Office.(i) Functioning of Officials: Within the

bureaucracy officials have fixedareas of ‘official jurisdiction’governed by rules, laws andadministrative regulations. Theregular activities of thebureaucratic organisation aredistributed in a fixed way as officialduties. Moreover, commands areissued by higher authorities forimplementation by subordinates ina stable way, but the responsibilitiesof officials are strictly delimited bythe authority available to them. Asduties are to be fulfilled on a regularbasis, only those who have therequisite qualifications to performthem are employed. Officialpositions in a bureaucracy areindependent of the incumbent asthey continue beyond the tenure ofany occupant.

(ii) Hierarchical Ordering of Positions:

Authority and office are placed ona graded hierarchy where thehigher officials supervise the lowerones. This allows scope of appealto a higher official in case ofdissatisfaction with the decisionsof lower officials.

(iii) Reliance on Written Document: Themanagement of a bureaucraticorganisation is carried out on thebasis of written documents

2018-19


(the files) which are preserved asrecords. There is cumulation in thedecision making of the ‘bureau’ oroffice. It is also a part of the publicdomain which is separate from theprivate life of the officials.

(iv) Office Management: As officemanagement is a specialised andmodern activity it requires trainedand skilled personnel to conductoperations.

(v) Conduct in Office: As official activitydemands the full time attention ofofficials irrespective of her/hisdelimited hours in office, hence anofficial’s conduct in office isgoverned by exhaustive rules andregulations. These separate her/his public conduct from her/hisbehaviour in the private domain.Also since these rules andregulations have legal recognition,officials can be held accountable.Weber’s characterisation of

bureaucracy as a modern form ofpolitical authority demonstrated howan individual actor was bothrecognised for her/his skills and

training and given responsibilities withthe requisite authority to implementthem. The legal delimitation of tasksand authority constrained unbridledpower and made officials accountableto their clients as the work was carriedout in the public domain.

Activity 4

To what extent do you think thefollowing groups or activities involvethe exercise of bureacratic authorityin Weber’s sense?(a) your class; (b) your school; (c) afootball team; (d) a panchayat samitiin a village; (e) a fan association fora popular film star; (f) a group ofregular commuters on a train or busroute; (g) a joint family; (h) a villagecommunity; (i) the crew of a ship; (j)a criminal gang; (k) the followers ofa religious leader; and (l) an audiencewatching a film in a cinema hall.

Based on your discussions, whichof these groups would you be willingto characterise as ‘bureaucratic’?Remember, you must discuss reasonsboth for as well as against, and listen

to people who disagree with!

GLOSSARY

Alienation: A process in capitalist society by which human beings are separatedand distanced from (or made strangers to) nature, other human beings, theirwork and its product, and their own nature or self.

Enlightenment: A period in 18th century Europe when philosophers rejectedthe supremacy of religious doctrines, established reason as the means to truth,and the human being as the sole bearer of reason.

Social Fact: Aspects of social reality that are related to collective patterns ofbehaviour and beliefs, which are not created by individuals but exert pressureon them and influence their behaviour.

2018-19


Mode of Production: It is a system of material production which persists over along period of time. Each mode of production is distinguished by its means ofproduction (eg: technology and forms of production organisation) and the relationsof production (eg: slavery, serfdom, wage labour).

Office: In the context of bureaucracy a public post or position of impersonal andformal authority with specified powers and responsibilities; the office has aseparate existence independent of the person appointed to it. (This is differentfrom another meaning of the same word which refers to an actual bureaucraticinstitution or to its physical location: eg. post office, panchayat office, PrimeMinister’s office, my mother’s or father’s office, etc.)

EXERCISES

1. Why is the Enlightenment important for the development of sociology?

2. How was the Industrial Revolution responsible for giving rise to sociology?

3. What are the various components of a mode of production?

4. Why do classes come into conflict, according to Marx?

5. What are social facts? How do we recognise them?

6. What is the difference between ‘mechanical’ and ‘organic’ solidarity?

7. Show, with examples, how moral codes are indicators of social solidarity.

8. What are the basic features of bureaucracy?

9. What is special or different about the kind of objectivity needed in social science?

10. Can you identify any ideas or theories which have led to the formation ofsocial movements in India in recent times?

11. Try to find out what Marx and Weber wrote about India.

12. Can you think of reasons why we should study the work of thinkers whodied long ago? What could be some reasons to not study them?

REFERENCES

BENDIX, REINHARD. 1960. Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait, Anchor Books,New York.

DURKHEIM, EMILE. 1964. The Division of Labour in Society, (trans. By George Simpson),Macmillan, New York.

IGNOU. 2004. ESO 13-1: Early Sociology, IGNOU, New Delhi.

2018-19

CHAPTER 5

INDIAN SOCIOLOGISTS

As you saw in the opening chapter ofyour first book, Introducing Sociology,the discipline is a relatively young oneeven in the European context, havingbeen established only about a centuryago. In India, interest in sociologicalways of thinking is a little more than acentury old, but formal universityteaching of sociology only began in1919 at the University of Bombay. Inthe 1920s, two other universities —those at Calcutta and Lucknow — alsobegan programmes of teaching andresearch in sociology and anthropology.Today, every major university has adepartment of sociology, socialanthropology or anthropology, andoften more than one of these disciplinesis represented.

Now-a-days sociology tends to betaken for granted in India, like mostestablished things. But this was notalways so. In the early days, it wasnot clear at all what an Indian sociologywould look like, and indeed, whetherIndia really needed something likesociology. In the first quarter of the20th century, those who becameinterested in the discipline had todecide for themselves what role it could

play in India. In this chapter, you aregoing to be introduced to some of thefounding figures of Indian sociology.These scholars have helped to shapethe discipline and adapt it to ourhistorical and social context.

The specificity of the Indian contextraised many questions. First of all, ifwestern sociology emerged as anattempt to make sense of modernity,what would its role be in a country likeIndia? India, too, was of courseexperiencing the changes broughtabout by modernity but with animportant difference — it was a colony.The first experience of modernity inIndia was closely intertwined with theexperience of colonial subjugation.Secondly, if social anthropology in thewest arose out of the curiosity felt byEuropean society about primitivecultures, what role could it have inIndia, which was an ancient andadvanced civilisation, but which alsohad ‘primitive’ societies within it?Finally, what useful role could sociologyhave in a sovereign, independent India,a nation about to begin its adventurewith planned development anddemocracy?

2018-19


The pioneers of Indian sociologynot only had to find their own answersto questions like these, they also hadto formulate new questions forthemselves. It was only through theexperience of ‘doing’ sociology in anIndian context that the questions tookshape — they were not available‘readymade’. As is often the case, inthe beginning Indians becamesociologists and anthropologistsmostly by accident. For example, oneof the earliest and best knownpioneers of social anthropology inIndia, L.K. Ananthakrishna Iyer(1861-1937), began his career as aclerk, moved on to become a schoolteacher and later a college teacher inCochin state in present day Kerala. In1902, he was asked by the Dewan ofCochin to assist with an ethnographicsurvey of the state. The Britishgovernment wanted similar surveysdone in all the princely states as wellas the presidency areas directly underits control. Ananthakrishna Iyer didthis work on a purely voluntary basis,working as a college teacher in theMaharajah’s College at Ernakulamduring the week, and functioning asthe unpaid Superintendent ofEthnography in the weekends. Hiswork was much appreciated by Britishanthropologists and administrators ofthe time, and later he was also invitedto help with a similar ethnographicsurvey in Mysore state.

Ananthakrishna Iyer was probablythe first self-taught anthropologist toreceive national and internationalrecognition as a scholar and an

academician. He was invited to lectureat the University of Madras, and wasappointed as Reader at the Universityof Calcutta, where he helped set up thefirst post-graduate anthropologydepartment in India. He remained atthe University of Calcutta from 1917to 1932. Though he had no formalqualifications in anthropology, he waselected President of the Ethnologysection of the Indian Science Congress.He was awarded an honorary doctorateby a German university during hislecture tour of European universities.He was also conferred the titles of RaoBahadur and Dewan Bahadur byCochin state.

The lawyer Sarat Chandra Roy(1871-1942) was another ‘accidentalanthropologist’ and pioneer of thediscipline in India. Before taking hislaw degree in Calcutta’s Ripon College,Roy had done graduate and post-graduate degrees in English. Soon afterhe had begun practising law, hedecided to go to Ranchi in 1898 to takeup a job as an English teacher at aChristian missionary school. Thisdecision was to change his life, for heremained in Ranchi for the next forty-four years and became the leadingauthority on the culture and society ofthe tribal peoples of the Chhotanagpurregion (present day Jharkhand). Roy’sinterest in anthropological mattersbegan when he gave up his school joband began practising law at the Ranchicourts, eventually being appointed asofficial interpreter in the court.

Roy became deeply interested intribal society as a byproduct of his

2018-19

85INDIAN SOCIOLOGISTS

professional need to interpret tribalcustoms and laws to the court. Hetravelled extensively among tribalcommunities and did intensivefieldwork among them. All of this wasdone on an ‘amateur’ basis, but Roy’sdiligence and keen eye for detailresulted in valuable monographs andresearch articles. During his entirecareer, Roy published more than onehundred articles in leading Indian andBritish academic journals in additionto his famous monographs on theOraon, the Mundas and the Kharias.Roy soon became very well knownamongst anthropologists in India andBritain and was recognised as anauthority on Chhotanagpur. Hefounded the journal Man in India in1922, the earliest journal of its kind inIndia that is still published.

Both Ananthakrishna Iyer andSarat Chandra Roy were true pioneers.In the early 1900s, they beganpractising a discipline that did not yetexist in India, and which had noinstitutions to promote it. Both Iyerand Roy were born, lived and died inan India that was ruled by the British.The four Indian sociologists you aregoing to be introduced in this chapterwere born one generation later thanIyer and Roy. They came of age in thecolonial era, but their careerscontinued into the era of independence,and they helped to shape the firstformal institutions that establishedIndian sociology. G.S. Ghurye and D.P.Mukerji were born in the 1890s whileA.R. Desai and M.N. Srinivas wereabout fifteen years younger, having

been born in the second decade of the20th century. Although they were alldeeply influenced by western traditionsof sociology, they were also able to offersome initial answers to the questionthat the pioneers could only begin toask : what shape should a specificallyIndian sociology take?

G.S. Ghurye can be considered thefounder of institutionalised sociologyin India. He headed India’s very firstpost-graduate teaching department ofSociology at Bombay University forthirty-five years. He guided a largenumber of research scholars, many ofwhom went on to occupy prominentpositions in the discipline. He alsofounded the Indian SociologicalSociety as well as its journalSociological Bulletin. His academicwritings were not only prolific, but verywide-ranging in the subjects theycovered. At a time when financial andinstitutional support for universityresearch was very limited, Ghuryemanaged to nurture sociology as anincreasingly Indian discipline. Ghurye’sBombay University department was thefirst to successfully implement two ofthe features which were laterenthusiastically endorsed by hissuccessors in the discipline. Thesewere the active combining of teachingand research within the sameinstitution, and the merger of socialanthropology and sociology into acomposite discipline.

Best known, perhaps, for hiswritings on caste and race, Ghurye alsowrote on a broad range of other themesincluding tribes; kinship, family and

2018-19


marriage; culture, civilisation and thehistoric role of cities; religion; and thesociology of conflict and integration.Among the intellectual and contextualconcerns which influenced Ghurye, themost prominent are perhapsdiffusionism, Orientalist scholarship

on Hindu religion and thought,nationalism, and the cultural aspectsof Hindu identity.

One of the major themes thatGhurye worked on was that of ‘tribal’or ‘aboriginal’ cultures. In fact, it washis writings on this subject, and

Govind Sadashiv Ghurye (1893-1983)

G. S. Ghurye was born on 12 December 1893 in Malvan,a town in the Konkan coastal region of western India. Hisfamily owned a trading business which had once beenprosperous, but was in decline.

1913: Joined Elphinstone College in Bombay withSanskrit Honours for the B.A. degree which hecompleted in 1916. Received the M.A. degree inSanskrit and English from the same college in 1918.

1919: Selected for a scholarship by the University ofBombay for training abroad in sociology. Initially went to the LondonSchool of Economics to study with L.T. Hobhouse, a prominent sociologistof the time. Later went to Cambridge to study with W.H.R. Rivers, andwas deeply influenced by his diffusionist perspective.

1923: Ph.D. submitted under A.C. Haddon after River’s sudden death in 1922.Returned to Bombay in May. Caste and Race in India, the manuscriptbased on the doctoral dissertation, was accepted for publication in a majorbook series at Cambridge.

1924: After brief stay in Calcutta, was appointed Reader and Head of theDepartment of Sociology at Bombay University in June. He remained asHead of the Department at Bombay University for the next 35 years.

1936: Ph.D. Programme was launched at the Bombay Department; the first Ph.D.in Sociology at an Indian university was awarded to G.R. Pradhan underGhurye’s supervision. The M.A. course was revised and made a full-fledged8-course programme in 1945.

1951: Ghurye established the Indian Sociological Society and became its foundingPresident. The journal of the Indian Sociological Society, Sociological Bulletin

was launched in 1952.

1959: Ghurye retired from the University, but continued to be active in academiclife, particularly in terms of publication — 17 of his 30 books were writtenafter retirement.G.S. Ghurye died in 1983, at the age of 90.

2018-19


specially his debate with Verrier Elwinwhich first made him known outsidesociology and the academic world. Inthe 1930s and 1940s there was muchdebate on the place of tribal societieswithin India and how the state shouldrespond to them. Many Britishadministrator-anthropologists werespecially interested in the tribes ofIndia and believed them to be primitivepeoples with a distinctive culture farfrom mainstream Hinduism. They alsobelieved that the innocent and simpletribals would suffer exploitation andcultural degradation through contactwith Hindu culture and society. Forthis reason, they felt that the statehad a duty to protect the tribes andto help them sustain their way of lifeand culture, which were facingconstant pressure to assimilate withmainstream Hindu culture. However,nationalist Indians were equallypassionate about their belief in theunity of India and the need formodernising Indian society andculture. They believed that attemptsto preserve tribal culture weremisguided and resulted in maintainingtribals in a backward state as‘museums’ of primitive culture. Aswith many features of Hinduism itselfwhich they felt to be backward and inneed of reform, they felt that tribes,too, needed to develop. Ghuryebecame the best-known exponent ofthe nationalist view and insisted oncharacterising the tribes of India as‘backward Hindus’ rather thandistinct cultural groups. He citeddetailed evidence from a wide variety

of tribal cultures to show that they hadbeen involved in constant interactionswith Hinduism over a long period.They were thus simply further behindin the same process of assimilationthat all Indian communities had gonethrough. This particular argument —namely, that Indian tribals werehardly ever isolated primitivecommunities of the type that waswritten about in the classicalanthropological texts — was not reallydisputed. The differences were in howthe impact of mainstream culture wasevaluated. The ‘protectionists’ believedthat assimilation would result in thesevere exploitation and culturalextinction of the tribals. Ghurye andthe nationalists, on the other hand,argued that these ill-effects were notspecific to tribal cultures, but werecommon to all the backward anddowntrodden sections of Indiansociety. These were the inevitabledifficulties on the road to development.

Activity 1

Today we still seem to be involved insimilar debates. Discuss the differentsides to the question from acontemporary perspective. Forexample, many tribal movementsassert their distinctive cultural andpolitical identity — in fact, the statesof Jharkhand and Chhattisgarhwere formed in response tosuch movements. There is also amajor controversy around thedisproportionate burden that tribalcommunities have been forced tobear for the sake of developmental

2018-19


projects like big dams, mines andfactories. How many such conflictsdo you know about? Find out whatthe issues are in these conflicts.What do you and your classmatesfeel should be done about these

problems?

Ghurye on Caste and Race

G.S. Ghurye’s academic reputationwas built on the basis of his doctoraldissertation at Cambridge, which waslater published as Caste and Race in

India (1932). Ghurye’s work attractedattention because it addressed themajor concerns of Indian anthropologyat the time. In this book, Ghuryeprovides a detailed critique of the thendominant theories about therelationship between race and caste.Herbert Risley, a British colonialofficial who was deeply interested inanthropological matters, was the mainproponent of the dominant view. Thisview held that human beings can bedivided into distinct and separateraces on the basis of their physicalcharacteristics such as thecircumference of the skull, the lengthof the nose, or the volume (size) of thecranium or the part of the skull wherethe brain is located.

Risley and others believed thatIndia was a unique ‘laboratory’ forstudying the evolution of racial typesbecause caste strictly prohibits inter-marriage among different groups, andhad done so for centuries. Risley’smain argument was that caste musthave originated in race because

different caste groups seemed tobelong to distinct racial types. Ingeneral, the higher castesapproximated Indo-Aryan racial traits,while the lower castes seemed tobelong to non-Aryan aboriginal,Mongoloid or other racial groups. Onthe basis of dif ferences betweengroups in terms of averagemeasurements for length of nose, sizeof cranium etc., Risley and otherssuggested that the lower castes werethe original aboriginal inhabitants ofIndia. They had been subjugated byan Aryan people who had come fromelsewhere and settled in India.

Ghurye did not disagree with thebasic argument put forward by Risley butbelieved it to be only partially correct.He pointed out the problem with usingaverages alone without considering thevariation in the distribution of aparticular measurement for a givencommunity. Ghurye believed thatRisley’s thesis of the upper castes beingAryan and the lower castes beingnon-Aryan was broadly true only fornorthern India. In other parts of India,the inter-group differences in theanthropometric measurements werenot very large or systematic. Thissuggested that, in most of India exceptthe Indo-Gangetic plain, differentracial groups had been mixing witheach other for a very long time. Thus,‘racial purity’ had been preserved dueto the prohibition on inter-marriageonly in ‘Hindustan proper’ (northIndia). In the rest of the country, thepractice of endogamy (marrying onlywithin a particular caste group) may

2018-19


have been introduced into groups thatwere already racially varied.

Today, the racial theory of caste isno longer believed, but in the first halfof the 20th century it was stillconsidered to be true. There areconflicting opinions among historiansabout the Aryans and their arrival inthe subcontinent. However, at thetime that Ghurye was writing thesewere among the concerns of thediscipline, which is why his writingsattracted attention.

Ghurye is also known for offeringa comprehensive definition ofcaste. His definition emphasises sixfeatures.

(i) Caste is an institution based onsegmental division. This meansthat caste is divided into a numberof closed, mutually exclusivesegments or compartments. Eachcaste is one such compartment. Itis closed because caste is decidedby birth — the children born toparents of a particular caste willalways belong to that caste. On theother hand, there is no way otherthan birth of acquiring castemembership. In short, a person’scaste is decided by birth at birth;it can neither be avoided norchanged.

(ii) Caste is based on hierarchical

division. Each caste is strictlyunequal to every other caste, thatis, every caste is either higher orlower than every other one. Intheory (though not in practice), notwo castes are ever equal.

(iii) The institution of caste necessarilyinvolves restrictions on social

interaction, specially the sharingof food. There are elaborate rulesprescribing what kind of food maybe shared between which groups.These rules are governed by ideasof purity and pollution. The samealso applies to social interaction,most dramatically in theinstitution of untouchability,where even the touch of people ofparticular castes is thought to bepolluting.

(iv) Following from the principles ofhierarchy and restricted socialinteraction, caste also involvesdifferential rights and duties fordifferent castes. These rights andduties pertain not only to religiouspractices but extend to the secularworld. As ethnographic accountsof everyday life in caste societyhave shown, interactions betweenpeople of different castes aregoverned by these rules.

(v) Caste restricts the choice of

occupation, which, like caste itself,is decided by birth and ishereditary. At the level of society,caste functions as a rigid form ofthe division of labour with specificoccupations being allocated tospecific castes.

(vi) Caste involves strict restrictions

on marriage. Caste ‘endogamy’,or marriage only within the caste,is often accompanied by rulesabout ‘exogamy’, or whom onemay not marry. This combination

2018-19


Dhurjati Prasad Mukerji (1894-1961)

D.P. Mukerji was born on 5 October 1894 in a middleclass Bengali brahmin family with a long tradition ofinvolvement in higher education. Undergraduate degreein science and postgraduate degrees in History andEconomics from Calcutta University.

1924: Appointed Lecturer in the Department ofEconomics and Sociology at Lucknow University

1938: 41 Served as Director of Information under thefirst Congress-led government of the UnitedProvinces of British India (present day UttarPradesh).

1947: Served as a Member of the U.P. Labour Enquiry Committee.

1949: Appointed Professor (by special order of the Vice Chancellor) at LucknowUniversity.

1953: Appointed Professor of Economics at Aligarh Muslim University

1955: Presidential Address to the newly formed Indian Sociological Society

1956: Underwent major surgery for throat cancer in Switzerland Died on 5December 1961.

of rules about eligible and non-eligible groups helps reproducethe caste system.

Ghurye’s definition helped tomake the study of caste moresystematic. His conceptual definitionwas based on what the classical textsprescribed. In actual practice, manyof these features of caste werechanging, though all of them continueto exist in some form. Ethnographicfieldwork over the next severaldecades helped to provide valuableaccounts of what was happening tocaste in independent India.

Between the 1920s and the 1950s,sociology in India was equated withthe two major departments at Bombay

and Lucknow. Both began ascombined departments of sociologyand economics. While the Bombay

department in this period was led byG.S. Ghurye, the Lucknow departmenthad three major figures, the famous

‘trinity’ of Radhakamal Mukerjee (thefounder), D.P. Mukerji, and D.N.Majumdar. Although all three were

well known and widely respected, D.P.Mukerji was perhaps the mostpopular. In fact, D.P. Mukerji — or D.P.

as he was generally known — wasamong the most influential scholarsof his generation not only in sociology

but in intellectual and public lifebeyond the academy. His influenceand popularity came not so much from

2018-19


his scholarly writings as from histeaching, his speaking at academicevents, and his work in the media,including newspaper articles andradio programmes. D.P. came tosociology via history and economics,and retained an active interest in awide variety of subjects ranging acrossliterature, music, film, western andIndian philosophy, Marxism, politicaleconomy, and development planning.He was strongly influenced byMarxism, though he had more faithin it as a method of social analysisthan as a political programme foraction. D.P. wrote many books inEnglish and Bengali. His Introduction

to Indian Music is a pioneering work,considered a classic in its genre.

D.P. Mukerji on Tradition and Change

It was through his dissatisfactionwith Indian history and economicsthat D.P. turned to sociology. He feltvery strongly that the crucialdistinctive feature of India was itssocial system, and that, therefore, itwas important for each social scienceto be rooted in this context. Thedecisive aspect of the Indian contextwas the social aspect: history, politicsand economics in India were lessdeveloped in comparison with thewest; however, the social dimensionswere ‘over-developed’. As D.P. wrote ,“… my conviction grew that India hadhad society, and very little else. Infact, she had too much of it. Herhistory, her economics, and even herphilosophy, I realised, had alwayscentred in social groups, and at best,

in socialised persons.” (Mukherji1955:2)

Given the centrality of society inIndia, it became the first duty of anIndian sociologist to study and toknow the social traditions of India. ForD.P. this study of tradition was notoriented only towards the past, butalso included sensitivity to change.Thus, tradition was a living tradition,maintaining its links with the past, butalso adapting to the present and thusevolving over time. As he wrote, “...itis not enough for the Indian sociologistto be a sociologist. He must be anIndian first, that is, he is to share inthe folk-ways, mores, customs andtraditions, for the purpose ofunderstanding his social system andwhat lies beneath it and beyond it.”In keeping with this view, he believedthat sociologists should learn and befamiliar with both ‘high’ and ‘low’languages and cultures — not onlySanskrit, Persian or Arabic, but alsolocal dialects.

D.P. argued that Indian cultureand society are not individualistic inthe western sense. The average Indianindividual’s pattern of desires is moreor less rigidly fixed by his socio-cultural group pattern and he hardlydeviates from it. Thus, the Indiansocial system is basically orientedtowards group, sect, or caste-action,not ‘voluntaristic’ individual action.Although ‘voluntarism’ was beginningto influence the urban middle classes,its appearance ought to be itself aninteresting subject of study for theIndian sociologist. D.P. pointed out

2018-19


that the root meaning of the wordtradition is to transmit. Its Sanskritequivalents are either parampara, thatis, succession; or aitihya, which comesfrom the same root as itihas or history.Traditions are thus strongly rooted inthe past that is kept alive through therepeated recalling and retelling ofstories and myths. However, this linkwith the past does not rule out change,but indicates a process of adaptationto it. Internal and external sources ofchange are always present in everysociety. The most commonly citedinternal source of change in westernsocieties is the economy, but thissource has not been as effective inIndia. Class conflict, D.P. believed, hadbeen “smoothed and covered by castetraditions” in the Indian context,where new class relations had not yetemerged very sharply. Based on thisunderstanding, he concluded that oneof the first tasks for a dynamic Indiansociology would be to provide anaccount of the internal, non-economiccauses of change.

D.P. believed that there were threeprinciples of change recognised inIndian traditions, namely; shruti, smriti

and anubhava. Of these, the last —anubhava or personal experience — isthe revolutionary principle. However, inthe Indian context personal experiencesoon flowered into collective experience.This meant that the most importantprinciple of change in Indian societywas generalised anubhava, or thecollective experience of groups. The hightraditions were centred in smriti andsruti, but they were periodically

challenged by the collective experienceof groups and sects, as for example inthe bhakti movement. D.P. emphasisedthat this was true not only of Hindubut also of Muslim culture in India. InIndian Islam, the Sufis have stressedlove and experience rather than holytexts, and have been important inbringing about change. Thus, for D.P.,the Indian context is not one wherediscursive reason (buddhi-vichar) is thedominant force for change; anubhava

and prem (experience and love) havebeen historically superior as agents ofchange.

Conflict and rebellion in the Indiancontext have tended to work throughcollective experiences. But theresilience of tradition ensures that thepressure of conflict produces changein the tradition without breaking it.So we have repeated cycles ofdominant orthodoxy being challengedby popular revolts which succeed intransforming orthodoxy, but areeventually reabsorbed into thistransformed tradition. This processof change — of rebellion containedwithin the limits of an overarchingtradition — is typical of a caste society,where the formation of classes andclass consciousness has beeninhibited. D.P.’s views on tradition andchange led him to criticise allinstances of unthinking borrowingfrom western intellectual traditions,including in such contexts asdevelopment planning. Tradition wasneither to be worshipped nor ignored,just as modernity was needed but notto be blindly adopted. D.P. was

2018-19


simultaneously a proud but criticalinheritor of tradition, as well as anadmiring critic of the modernity thathe acknowledged as having shaped hisown intellectual perspective.

Activity 2

Discuss what is meant by a ‘livingtradition’. According to D.P. Mukerji,this is a tradition which maintainslinks with the past by retainingsomething from it, and at the sametime incorporates new things. A livingtradition thus includes some oldelements but also some new ones.You can get a better and moreconcrete sense of what this means ifyou try to find out from differentgenerations of people in yourneighbourhood or family about whatis changed and what is unchangedabout specific practices. Here is a listof subjects you can try; you could alsotry other subjects of your own choice.

Games played by children ofyour age group (boys/girls)

Ways in which a popular festivalis celebrated

Typical dress/clothing worn bywomen and men

… Plus other such subjects ofyour choice …

For each of these, you need tofind out: What aspects haveremained unchanged since as farback as you know or can find out?What aspects have changed? Whatwas different and same about thepractice/event (i) 10 years ago; (ii)20 years ago; (iii) 40 years ago;(iv) 60 or more years ago

Discuss your findings with the

whole class.

A.R. Desai is one of the rare Indiansociologists who was directly involvedin politics as a formal member ofpolitical parties. Desai was a life-longMarxist and became involved in Marxistpolitics during his undergraduate daysat Baroda, though he later resigned hismembership of the Communist Partyof India. For most of his career he wasassociated with various kinds of non-mainstream Marxist political groups.Desai’s father was a middle level civilservant in the Baroda state, but wasalso a well-known novelist, withsympathy for both socialism andIndian nationalism of the Gandhianvariety. Having lost his mother earlyin life, Desai was brought up by hisfather and lived a migratory lifebecause of the frequent transfers ofhis father to different posts in theBaroda state.

After his undergraduate studies inBaroda, Desai eventually joined theBombay department of sociology tostudy under Ghurye. He wrote hisdoctoral dissertation on the socialaspects of Indian nationalism and wasawarded the degree in 1946. Histhesis was published in 1948 as The

Social Background of Indian

Nationalism, which is probably hisbest known work. In this book, Desaioffered a Marxist analysis of Indiannationalism, which gave prominenceto economic processes and divisions,while taking account of the specificconditions of British colonialism.Although it had its critics, this bookproved to be very popular and wentthrough numerous reprints. Among

2018-19


the other themes that Desai workedon were peasant movements and ruralsociology, modernisation, urbanissues, political sociology, forms of thestate and human rights. BecauseMarxism was not very prominent orinfluential within Indian sociology,A.R. Desai was perhaps better knownoutside the discipline than within it.Although he received many honoursand was elected President of theIndian Sociological Society, Desairemained a somewhat unusual figurein Indian sociology.

A.R. Desai on the State

The modern capitalist state was one

of the significant themes that

Akshay Ramanlal Desai (1915-1994)

A. R. Desai was born in 1915. Early education in Baroda, then in Surat and Bombay.

1934-39: Member of Communist Party of India; involved with Trotskyite groups.

1946: Ph.D. submitted at Bombay under the supervision of G.S. Ghurye.

1948: Desai’s Ph.D. dissertation is published as the book: Social Background

of Indian Nationalism.

1951: Joins the faculty of the Department of Sociology at Bombay University

1953-1981: Member of Revolutionary Socialist Party.

1961: Rural Transition in India is published.

1967: Appointed Professor and Head of Department.

1975: State and Society in India: Essays in Dissent is published.

1976: Retired from Department of Sociology.

1979: Peasant Struggles in India is published.

1986: Agrarian Struggles in India after Independence is published.Died on 12 November 1994.

interested A.R. Desai. As always, his

approach to this issue was from a

Marxist perspective. In an essay called

“The myth of the welfare state”, Desai

provides a detailed critique of this

notion and points to it many

shortcomings. After considering the

prominent definitions available in the

sociological literature, Desai identifies

the following unique features of the

welfare state:

(i) A welfare state is a positive state.This means that, unlike the ‘laissezfaire’ of classical liberal politicaltheory, the welfare state does notseek to do only the minimumnecessary to maintain law andorder. The welfare state is an

2018-19


interventionist state and activelyuses its considerable powers todesign and implement social policiesfor the betterment of society.

(ii) The welfare state is a democraticstate. Democracy was consideredan essential condition for theemergence of the welfare state.Formal democratic institutions,specially multi-party elections,were thought to be a definingfeature of the welfare state. Thisis why liberal thinkers excludedsocialist and communist statesfrom this definition.

(iii) A welfare state involves a mixedeconomy. A ‘mixed economy’ meansan economy where both privatecapitalist enterprises and stateor publicly owned enterprisesco-exist. A welfare state does notseek to eliminate the capitalistmarket, nor does it prevent publicinvestment in industry and otherfields. By and large, the statesector concentrates on basic goodsand social infrastructure, whileprivate industry dominates theconsumer goods sector.

Desai then goes on to suggest sometest criteria against which theperformance of the welfare state canbe measured. These are:(i) Does the welfare state ensure

freedom from poverty, socialdiscrimination and security for allits citizens?

(ii) Does the welfare state removeinequalities of income throughmeasures to redistribute income

from the rich to the poor, and bypreventing the concentration ofwealth?

(iii) Does the welfare state transformthe economy in such a way thatthe capitalist profit motive is madesubservient to the real needs of thecommunity?

iv) Does the welfare state ensurestable development free from thecycle of economic booms anddepressions?

(v) Does it provide employment for all?

Using these criteria, Desaiexamines the performance of thosestates that are most often described aswelfare states, such as Britain, the USAand much of Europe, and finds theirclaims to be greatly exaggerated. Thus,most modern capitalist states, even inthe most developed countries, fail toprovide minimum levels of economicand social security to all their citizens.They are unable to reduce economicinequality and often seem to encourageit. The so-called welfare states have alsobeen unsuccessful at enabling stabledevelopment free from marketfluctuations. The presence of excesseconomic capacity and high levels ofunemployment are yet another failure.Based on these arguments, Desaiconcludes that the notion of the welfarestate is something of a myth.

A.R. Desai also wrote on theMarxist theory of the state. In thesewritings we can see that Desai doesnot take a one-sided view but openlycriticises the shortcomings ofCommunist states. He cites many

2018-19


Marxist thinkers to emphasise theimportance of democracy even undercommunism, arguing strongly thatpolitical liberties and the rule of lawmust be upheld in all genuinelysocialist states.

Activity 3

A.R. Desai criticises the welfare statefrom a Marxist and socialist point ofview — that is he would like the stateto do more for its citizens than isbeing done by western capitalistwelfare states. There are also verystrong opposing viewpoints todaywhich say that the state should doless — it should leave most thingsto the free market. Discuss theseviewpoints in class. Be sure to givea fair hearing to both sides.

Make a list of all the things thatare done by the state or governmentin your neighbourhood, starting withyour school. Ask: people to find outif this list has grown longer or shorterin recent years — is the state doingmore things now than before, or less?What do you feel would happen if thestate were to stop doing these things?Would you and your neighbourhood/school be worse off, better off, orremain unaffected? Would rich,middle class, and poor people havethe same opinion, or be affected inthe same way, if the state were tostop some of its activities?

Make a list of state-providedservices and facilities in yourneighbourhood, and see how opinionsmight differ across class groups onwhether these should continue or bestopped. (For example: roads, watersupply, electricity supply, street

lights, schools, sanitation, policeservices, hospitals, bus, train andair transport… Think of others thatare relevant in your context.)

Probably the best known Indiansociologist of the post-independenceera, M.N. Srinivas earned two doctoraldegrees, one from Bombay Universityand one from Oxford. Srinivas was astudent of Ghurye’s at Bombay.Srinivas’ intellectual orientation wastransformed by the years he spent atthe department of social anthropologyin Oxford. British social anthropologywas at that time the dominant forcein western anthropology, and Srinivasalso shared in the excitement of beingat the ‘centre’ of the discipline.Srinivas’ doctoral dissertation waspublished as Religion and Society

among the Coorgs of South India. Thisbook established Srinivas’ internationalreputation with its detailed ethnographicapplication of the structural – functionalperspective dominant in British socialanthropology. Srinivas was appointedto a newly created lectureship in Indiansociology at Oxford, but resigned in1951 to return to India as the head ofa newly created department ofsociology at the Maharaja SayajiraoUniversity at Baroda. In 1959, hemoved to Delhi to set up anotherdepartment at the Delhi School ofEconomics, which soon became knownas one of the leading centres ofsociology in India.

Srinivas often complained thatmost of his energies were taken up ininstitution building, leaving him with

2018-19


little time for his own research. Despitethese difficulties, Srinivas produced asignificant body of work on themes suchas caste, modernisation and otherprocesses of social change, villagesociety, and many other issues.Srinivas helped to establish Indiansociology on the world map throughhis international contacts andassociations. He had strongconnections in British socialanthropology as well as Americananthropology, particularly at the

University of Chicago, which was thena powerful centre in worldanthropology. Like G.S. Ghurye and theLucknow scholars, Srinivas succeededin training a new generation ofsociologists who were to becomeleaders of the discipline in the followingdecades.

M.N. Srinivas on the Village

The Indian village and village society

remained a life-long focus of interest

for Srinivas. Although he had made

Mysore Narasimhachar Srinivas (1916-1999)

M.N. Srinivas was born on 16 November 1916 in anIyengar brahmin family in Mysore. His father was alandowner and worked for the Mysore power and lightdepartment. His early education was at MysoreUniversity, and he later went to Bombay to do an MAunder G.S. Ghurye.

1942: M.A. thesis on Marriage and Family Among theCoorgs published as book.

1944: Ph.D. thesis (in 2 volumes) submitted to BombayUniversity under the supervision of G.S. Ghurye.

1945: Leaves for Oxford; studies first under Radcliffe-Brown and then under Evans-Pritchard.

1947: Awarded D.Phil. degree in Social Anthropologyfrom Oxford; returns to India.

1948: Appointed Lecturer in Indian Sociology at Oxford; fieldwork in Rampura.

1951: Resigns from Oxford to take up Professorship at Maharaja Sayaji RaoUniversity in Baroda to found its sociology department.

1959: Takes up Professorship at the Delhi School of Economics to set up thesociology department there.

1971: Leaves Delhi University to co-found the Institute of Social and EconomicChange at Bangalore.

Died on 30 November 1999.

2018-19


short visits to villages to conduct

surveys and interviews, it was notuntil he did fieldwork for a year at a

village near Mysore that he really

acquired first-hand knowledge ofvillage society. The experience offieldwork proved to be decisive for hiscareer and his intellectual path.Srinivas helped encourage andcoordinate a major collective effort atproducing detailed ethnographicaccounts of village society during the1950s and 1960s. Along with otherscholars like S.C. Dube and D.N.Majumdar, Srinivas was instrumentalin making village studies thedominant field in Indian sociologyduring this time.

Srinivas’ writings on the villagewere of two broad types. There wasfirst of all ethnographic accounts offieldwork done in villages ordiscussions of such accounts. Asecond kind of writing includedhistorical and conceptual discussionsabout the Indian village as a unit ofsocial analysis. In the latter kind ofwriting, Srinivas was involved in adebate about the usefulness of thevillage as a concept. Arguing againstvillage studies, some socialanthropologists like Louis Dumontthought that social institutions likecaste were more important thansomething like a village, which wasafterall only a collection of peopleliving in a particular place. Villagesmay live or die, and people may movefrom one village to another, but theirsocial institutions, like caste orreligion, follow them and go with them

wherever they go. For this reason,Dumont believed that it would bemisleading to give much importance tothe village as a category. As againstthis view, Srinivas believed that thevillage was a relevant social entity.Historical evidence showed that villageshad served as a unifying identity andthat village unity was quite significantin rural social life. Srinivas alsocriticised the British administratoranthropologists who had put forwarda picture of the Indian village asunchanging, self-sufficient, “littlerepublics”. Using historical andsociological evidence, Srinivas showedthat the village had, in fact, experiencedconsiderable change. Moreover, villageswere never self-sufficient, and had beeninvolved in various kinds of economic,social and political relationships at theregional level.

The village as a site of researchoffered many advantages to Indiansociology. It provided an opportunityto illustrate the importance ofethnographic research methods. Itoffered eye-witness accounts of therapid social change that was takingplace in the Indian countryside as thenewly independent nation began aprogramme of planned development.These vivid descriptions of village Indiawere greatly appreciated at the timeas urban Indians as well as policymakers were able to form impressionsof what was going on in the heartlandof India. Village studies thus provideda new role for a discipline like sociologyin the context of an independentnation. Rather than being restricted

2018-19


to the study of ‘primitive’ peoples, itcould also be made relevant to amodernising society.

Activity 4

Suppose you had friends fromanother planet or civilisation whowere visiting the Earth for the firsttime and had never heard ofsomething called a ‘village’. What arethe five clues you would give themto identify a village if they ever cameacross one?

Do this in small groups and thencompare the five clues given bydifferent groups. Which featuresappear most often? Do the mostcommon features help you to makea sort of definition of a village? (Tocheck whether your definition is agood one, ask yourself the question:Could there be a village where all ormost features mentioned in yourdefinition are absent?)

Activity 5

In the 1950s, there was great interestamong urban Indians in the villagestudies that sociologists began doingat that time. Do you feel urban peopleare interested in the village today?How often are villages mentioned inthe T.V., in newspapers and films? Ifyou live in a city, does your familystill have contacts with relatives in thevillage? Did it have such contacts inyour parents’ generation or yourgrandparents’ generation? Do youknow of anybody from a city who hasmoved to a village? Do you know ofpeople who would like to go back? Ifyou do, what reasons do these people

give for wanting to leave the city andlive in the village? If you don’t knowof any such people, why do you thinkpeople don’t want to live in a village?If you know of people living in a villagewho would like to live in a town orcity, what reasons do they give for

wanting to leave the village?

Conclusion

These four Indian sociologists helped

to give a distinctive character to thediscipline in the context of a newlyindependent modernising country.

They are offered here as examples ofthe diverse ways in which sociologywas ‘Indianised’. Thus, Ghurye began

with the questions defined by westernanthropologists, but brought to themhis intimate knowledge of classical

texts and his sense of educated Indianopinion. Coming from a very differentbackground, a thoroughly westernised

modern intellectual like D.P. Mukerjirediscovered the importance of Indiantradition without being blind to its

shortcomings. Like Mukerji, A.R.Desai was also strongly influenced byMarxism and offered a critical view of

the Indian state at a time when suchcriticism was rare. Trained in thedominant centres of western socialanthropology, M.N. Srinivas adaptedhis training to the Indian context andhelped design a new agenda forsociology in the late 20th century.

It is a sign of the health andstrength of a discipline whensucceeding generations learn from

2018-19


GLOSSARY

Administrator–anthropologists: The term refers to British administrativeofficials who were part of the British Indian government in the 19th andearly 20th centuries, and who took great interest in conductinganthropological research, specially surveys and censuses. Some of thembecame well known anthropologists after retirement. Prominent namesinclude: Edgar Thurston, William Crooke, Herbert Risley and J.H. Hutton.

Anthropometry: The branch of anthropology that studied human racialtypes by measuring the human body, particularly the volume of the cranium(skull), the circumference of the head, and the length of the nose.

Assimilation: A process by which one culture (usually the larger or moredominant one) gradually absorbs another; the assimilated culture mergesinto the assimilating culture, so that it is no longer alive or visible at theend of the process.

Endogamy: A social institution that defines the boundary of a social orkin group within which marriage relations are permissible; marriage outsidethese defined groups are prohibited. The most common example is casteendogamy, where marriage may only take place with a member of thesame caste.

Exogamy: A social institution that defines the boundary of a social or kingroup with which or within which marriage relations are prohibited;marriages must be contracted outside these prohibited groups. Commonexamples include prohibition of marriage with blood relatives (sapindexogamy), members of the same lineage (sagotra exogamy), or residents ofthe same village or region (village/region exogamy).

Laissez-faire: A French phrase (literally ‘let be’ or ‘leave alone’) that standsfor a political and economic doctrine that advocates minimum stateintervention in the economy and economic relations; usually associated withbelief in the regulative powers and efficiency of the free market.

and eventually go beyond theirpredecessors. This has also beenhappening in Indian sociology.Succeeding generations havesubjected the work of these pioneers

to constructive criticism in order totake the discipline further. The signsof this process of learning and critiqueare visible not only in this book butall over Indian sociology.

2018-19


EXERCISES

1. How did Ananthakrishna Iyer and Sarat Chandra Roy come to practicesocial anthropology?

2. What were the main arguments on either side of the debate about howto relate to tribal communities?

3. Outline the positions of Herbert Risley and G.S. Ghurye on therelationship between race and caste in India.

4. Summarise the social anthropological definition of caste.

5. What does D.P. Mukerji mean by a ‘living tradition’? Why did he insistthat Indian sociologists be rooted in this tradition?

6. What are the specificities of Indian culture and society, and how dothey affect the pattern of change?

7. What is a welfare state? Why is A.R. Desai critical of the claims madeon its behalf?

8. What arguments were given for and against the village as a subject ofsociological research by M.N. Srinivas and Louis Dumont?

9. What is the significance of village studies in the history of Indiansociology? What role did M.N. Srinivas play in promoting village studies?

REFERENCES

DESAI, A.R. 1975. State and Society in India: Essays in Dissent. PopularPrakashan, Bombay.

DESHPANDE, SATISH. 2007. ‘Fashioning a Postcolonial Discipline: M.N. Srinivasand Indian Sociology’ in Uberoi, Sundar and Deshpande (eds) (in press).

GHURYE, G.S. 1969. Caste and Race in India, Fifth Edition, PopularPrakashan, Bombay.

PRAMANICK, S.K. 1994. Sociology of G.S. Ghurye, Rawat Publications, Jaipur,and New Delhi.

MUKERJI, D.P. 1946. Views and Counterviews. The Universal Publishers,Lucknow.

MUKERJI, D.P. 1955. ‘Indian Tradition and Social Change’, PresidentialAddress to the All India Sociological Conference at Dehradun,

2018-19


Reproduced in T.K. Oommen and Partha N. Mukherji (eds) 1986. Indian

Sociology: Reflections and Introspections, Popular Prakashan,Bombay.

MADAN, T.N. 1994. Pathways: Approaches to the Study of Society in India.Oxford University Press, New Delhi.

PATEL, SUJATA. ‘Towards a Praxiological Understanding of Indian Society:

The Sociology of A.R. Desai’, in Uberoi, Sundar and Deshpande (eds)(in press).

SRINIVAS, M.N. 1955. India’s Villages. Development Department,Government of West Bengal. West Bengal Government Press, Calcutta.

SRINIVAS, M.N. 1987. ‘The Indian Village: Myth and Reality’ in the Dominant

Caste and other Essays. Oxford University Press, New Delhi.

UBEROI, PATRICIA, NANDINI SUNDAR AND SATISH DESHPANDE (eds) (in press).Disciplinary Biographies: Essays in the History of Indian Sociology and

Social Anthropology. Permanent Black, New Delhi.

UPADHYA, CAROL. ‘The Idea of Indian Society: G.S. Ghurye and the Makingof Indian Sociology’, in Uberoi, Sundar and Deshpande (eds) (in press).

2018-19

UNDERSTANDING SOCIETY€¦ · children’s life at school must be linked to their life outside the...

Documents

Transcript of UNDERSTANDING SOCIETY€¦ · children’s life at school must be linked to their life outside the...