Moving towards

development and change

A. K. Sharma

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We have discussed the various institutions of
India
• But India is changing
• Even during the last two months we discussed Indian institutions they
were constantly changing
• The rate was slow and you may not see them today
• Some incidences will show up in results in the long run
• Now in the rest half of the course we will focus on change and
sources of change
• India has developed/changed; India is developing/changing; India is
moving towards an unknown destiny

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To say that India is developing is:
• To employ an evolutionary perspective (Herbert Spencer, August Comte, …)
• For example, totem to polytheism, polytheism to monotheism,
monotheism to atheism or universal religion of humanity
• Small village to urban agglomeration
• Faith to rationality
• To assume that development is a value
• To assume that we must identify the obstacles in the path of development
and facilitate the development processes
• To grant that development is multifaceted, non-linear and complex

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Indian society is changing
• Now we will focus on change
• With respect to institutions
 such as caste, Is caste part of institutions or
 village community,
Social structure?
 Jajmani system to market,
 religious community,
 collectivism to individualism
 gender roles, and
 employment and consumption
• Through the processes of change: planned development, processes of change,
social movements
• Today we have introductory lecture on this aspect of the reality
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Change
• Change in population
• Change in food habits, dress and hair style
• Change in technology
• Change in medicinal practices
• Change in housing design/architecture
• Change in urbanization
• Change in panchayat system
• Change in income levels
• Change in the degree of social stratification
• Change in the knowledge about viral infections such as HIV
• Only that change which amounts to change in social organization or social structure is called social
change
• The term cultural change is more inclusive than social change; cultural change includes changes in art,
science, technology, language, sometimes without social change

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Social structure is the sum total of all expected social relationships

It tells about the real patterns of behavior

Also seen as the order of society or a complex of relationships between different social institutions, for example mode of production
and family

• ,

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Now you can talk about causes of social
change more precisely
• Renaissance – indigenization in the framework of western societies
• Ideals/ values produced during the freedom struggle
• Modernization
• Westernization
• Urbanization
• Constitutional values

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Consequences of social change
• Some good, some bad
 Freedom from caste
 Women empowerment
 Spread of literacy and education
 Greater access to information
 Freedom from superstitious beliefs
 Fight against hunger
 Better health facilities
 Caste and communal conflicts
 Corruption
 Violence
 Terrorism
 Distrust
 Crime
 Political unrest

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Other issues
• Globalization – transnational/ free flow of man, technology, and
information
• Glocalization
• Post modernization – end of all ends – nothing in sight
• Apocalypse
• International collaborations against environmental crisis, pandemics,
hunger, malnutrition, illiteracy, gender disparity, poverty

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A new India needs to be theorized
• Options are:
 Western sociological theories – structural functionalism,
Marxism, other conflict theories, critical school and post
modernism (Zygmunt Bauman)
 Indigenization – As Louis Dumont’s framework of Homo
Hieararchicus
 Indian social thought – Gandhi, Ambedkar, Lohia, Aurovindo,
Jai Prakash Narayan
 New theories

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Thank you!

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