UPSC MAINS SOCIOLOGY SYLLABUS
Paper 2 – Section A – Introducing Indian Society
(ii) Impact of colonial rule on Indian society :
(a) Social background of Indian nationalism.
(b) Modernization of Indian tradition.
(c) Protests and movements during the colonial period.
(d) Social reforms
INTRODUCTION
The term ‘modernization’ generally refers to the process of transition between a ‘traditional’ agrarian society and the kind of ‘modern’ society that is based on trade and industry. Thus, it should be thought of as a continuous dynamic process, rather than a single ‘state’. However, as a singular concept, it is difficult to precisely define modernization. According to Horowitz, ‘every attempt to define modernization in terms of an operational set of variables results in a new set of ideas which have relatively little to do with the original concept’.
THEORY OF MODERNIZATION
Modernization theory is an umbrella term used for a range of perspectives that sought to explain the processes of social change in the Third World during the 1950s and 1960s. Although the early classical theorists such as Comte, Weber, Marx and Durkhiem were interested in the modernization of the West, the present ‘modernization theory’ is primarily concerned with the modernization of the developing ‘non- modern’ nations (Deshpande). After the Second World War, which hastened the process of decolonization, there were many newly formed nation- states whose main agenda was the modernization of their societies. They aimed to achieve material progress through the principles of science and rationality.
APPROACHES TO MODERNITY
One method looks at the differences in contemporary western society and culture and medieval Europe as similar to the difference between medieval Europe and medieval India. So we can think about and analyse difference between civilizations, and their attendant culture. On the other hand the situation can be looked at from the viewpoint of change involving the end of one type of traditional society and the coming into being of modern societies. The latter perspective is the more influential one and it provides an analysis that gives a different perspective. The approach mentioned first is a cultural approach and the second an a-cultural approach.
Modernity can also be explained and accounted for in socio-cultural terms and also intellectual shifts. Thus transformation social, cultural, individual can be seen to arise from increased mobility, demographic changes, industrialisation and so on. In such cases as mentioned above modernity is conceived of as transformations which all cultures can go through and will undergo in due course of time. Thus any culture would be impacted by the increase in scientific consciousness, secularisation of religion and the growth of instrumental thinking. Modernity then, in this approach/theory issues from rationality which is culture-neutral.
MODERNISATION IN INDIA
Modernization can be glimpsed through both structural transformation of Indian society and cultural changes. It is safe to say that the process began as a result of colonization, when there was a direct encounter of India’s traditional society with the modernizing West. Traditionally, the social structure in India was based on the caste system, which was a closed, hierarchical system based on the notions of purity and pollution. The colonizers introduced the earliest instruments of modernization- western education, bureacracy, system of civil rights, and a modern super-structure of state and economy among other things. Exposure to these change agents led to the creation of a new political culture and a sense of nationalism. The combination of increased technology and western eduction together created a change
in the traditional structure- it resulted in the formation of the middle class, which was largely absent previously. However, this new class did not completely break away from the traditional social structure, because most of the people who comprised of it belonged to the upper castes and thus there remained a class-caste congruency.
In the post-independence period, the modernization process followed the same pattern set during the colonial era. Since many of the leaders in the national movement had been educated in the West, there was a recognition of the benefits that modernization had brought to the West, and therefore the need to bring it to the Indian nation to become a stronger and more progressive nation. They realized early
on that this meant a radical reorganization of Indian society, along with the elimination of its many cultural evils. As a result, the Zamindari system, Princely estates and several other such systems were made illegal. The main aim of the modernization project in India was to make India an economically developed and socially just, and egalitarian republic through advancements in modern education, science and technology. While the colonial experience made the Indian leadership conscious of the need to attain a more progressive society through the advent of modernization, it also made them conscious of the Indian identity, its tradition and culture which they acclaimed to be of continuing significance.
SANSKRITISATION AND WESTERNISATION
Srinivas defines westernization as the changes brought about in Indian society and culture as a result of over 150 years of British rule, the term subsuming changes occurring at different levels, technology, institutions, ideology and values. In sanskritization, the lower castes imitates Brahmins in matters of dress, food and rituals to reach higher positions in the local social order. -“The process by which a low caste or tribe or other group takes over the customs, rituals, beliefs, ideology and style of life of a high and in particular a twice born caste.
YOGENDRA SINGH ON MODERNISATION IN INDIA
In the book on Essays on Modernization in India (1977), Singh has analysed the varied and complex processes involved in the modernization in India. Evolutionary Approach – He locates sources of social changes such as Sanskritisation, Islamic influence, Western influence which led to cultural change. At the structural level – institutions of bureaucracy, army, middle class, etc were results of modernisation of tradition in structural terms. Micro changes in structure are analogous to Little tradition. Eg: Changes in caste, family, etc. Macro Changes are analogous to the great tradition. Eg: Political, industrial, bureaucratic and urban structures.
CRITIQUE
The gap between the poor and the rich countries is ever-increasing, which restricts ‘modernization’ in the decolonized nations. Since the conceptualization itself is an import from the West, the colonial rulers themselves had decided the yardstick of modernization, Indian social scientists have also succumbed to the West imposed hegemonic ideas and misconceptions about the Third World reality. As Kamat argues, this is ‘clearly an instance of present- day cultural imperialism’. Western indologists tended to ‘prove’ that Indians (and people of other colonized countries) were ‘inferior’ and somewhat at a ‘lower stage
of growth’ as compared to the West. Thus, from its inception, modernization theory has faced severe criticisms because of its lack of historicity, simplistic arguments, lack of criticality and ideological bias.
