Page 232 - DSOC201_SOCIAL_STRUCTURE_AND_SOCIAL_CHANGE_ENGLISH

Unit 10: Social Change

• To reduce inequalities among castes, regions, and classes. Notes
• To preserve fundamental human rights, such as right of free speech, right of free religious expression,
right of political participation, and so forth.
• To establish a society where individuals would be motivated by spirit of selflessness, sacrifice, co-
operation and idealism.
10.3 Approaches of Social Change

Yogendra Singh in his early writings on social change (1969: 11) had talked of three approaches to
the study of nature and process of social change in India: philosophico-historical and metaphysical
approach, historical and political approach, and social anthropological and sociological approach.
The source for the philosophico-historical approach was described as the Indian and the western
philosophies. Indian philosophy and religion had proposed a philosophical theory of change
characterized by cyclical rythm in society (vilai-prilai;satyug-kalyug), broken and reactivated from time
to time through avataras (reincarnations). The foundation of this theory was belief in karma, dharma and
moksha. At one time, this theory was much accepted but now it has almost waned because systematic
analysis is not possible. Social change by the historicopolitical approach is studied through records of
Indian history. For example, change in the caste system or change in the status of women is studied by
systematic analysis of historical records pertaining to different periods, say Maurya period, Gupta
period, Brahmanical period, Mughal period, British period, and post-independence period. The limitation
of this approach lies in the fact that all historical records may not be available or the evidence may not
be reliable. Consequently, reliance on this approach for sociological generalizations would be fallacious.
The socio-anthropological approach was considered more systematic than the other two (metaphysical
and historical) approaches. The method in this approach is intensive field-work or participant
observation. The theoretical propositions in this approach refer to a body of ethnographic data, either
the result of one’s own or another’s field-work. Theoretical conclusions formulated by others are
developed further by applying them to body of intensive data collected by the social anthropologist
himself. M.N. Srinivas (1985: 137) is of the opinion that a few weeks or months with a people, through
interpreters and a few selected informants cannot provide a reliable or intimate view of the people
studied. A social anthropologist is expected to spend at least twelve to eighteen months among the
people he studies to master their language as to observe as much as he can. The British social
anthropologists now not emphasize culture but society, social structure and social relations. The social
anthropologists have also come to focus on the ‘comparative method’ which includes study of different
societies. Further, knowing that the institutions of a society are interrelated, the social anthropologist
studies, along with the specific institution, all the other institutions related with it. The limitation of
socio-anthropological approach is that effort to generalize about the macrocosm is on the basis of the
microcosm. This is on the implicit assumption of ‘homogeneity’ and ‘universality’. But in India, we find
more heterogeneity and diversity. As such, by studying change between two time-periods in a certain
institution (say family, caste, etc.) in one village, we cannot generalize that similar change takes place in
other villages or in whole Indian society as well. The weaknesses in the socio-anthropological approach
are eliminated in the sociological approach. In sociological approach, the systematic empirical inquiries
are conducted at macrocosmic level and generalizations are developed.
In his later writings on social change (1977), Yogendra Singh talked of five approaches in studying
social change in India. These are: evolutionary approach, cultural approach (Sanskritization and
Westernization, Little and Great traditions, and Parochialization and Universalization), structural
approach (based on functional and dialectical models), ideological approach, and integration approach.
Evolutionary Approach
In the evolutionary approach, gradual development is studied from simple to complex form through
a long series of small changes. Each change results in a minor modification of the system, but the
cumulative effect of many changes over a long period of time is the emergence of new complex form.
Within the evolutionary approach, the four sub-ap-proaches used by different scholars are: unilinear,
universal, cyclical and multilinear.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 227