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Social Structure and Social Change

Notes out earlier. Political parties such as the Hindu Mahasabha and the Jan Sangh, and “cultural”
organizations such as the militant Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, become agencies for the
perpetuation and reinterpretation of Hinduism. In a word, Hinduism is becoming increasingly, though
very slowly, dissociated from its traditional social structure of caste, kinship and village community,
and is becoming associated with the state, political parties and organizations promoting Indian culture.
Traditional institutions such as monasteries and temples, cults of saints, bhajan groups, and pilgrimages
have shown resilience and adaptability to new circumstances. Mass media such as the films, radio,
books and newspapers are playing their part in carrying Hinduism to all sections of the Hindu
population, and in the very process of such popularization are reinterpreting the religion.
Globalization, Human Rights and Contemporary India
Every nation and society in the course of its history is confronted with the issuess that dominate the
concerns and pare occupations of its people. India has been confronted by the problems of casteism,
communalism, regionalism and ethnic conflicts, tribalism and linguism. But of late communalism
alongwith globalization and violation of human rights have emerged as dangerous forces threatening
the helath of India. Communialislm has already been dealt with in some details in the section ‘Religion
and Society’ in the present book.
Now let us take a hard look at the status of globalization and human rights.
12.5 Globalization

‘Globalization’ has emerged as one of the most important and talked about phenomenon of the
presentage with its social, economic and political dimensions. The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology
(1995) describes globalization as a “process in which social life within societies is increasingly affected
by international influences based on everything from political and trade ties to shared music, clothing
styles, and mass media”. Perhaps, the most powerful form of globalization is economic in which
planning and control expand from a relatively narrow focus such as a single firm doing business on
a regional or national basis to a broad global focus in which the entire world serves as a source of
labour, raw materials, and markets. When business is conducted on a local level, for example, problems
of dealing with workers, obtaining raw materials and other goods, transportation, and selling the
final product all take place within the same social framework. In a globalized economy, however;
Transnational Corporations operate in many different countries at once and exploit variations in
local conditions for their own advantage. If workers in a more affluent industrial society such as
Britain or the United States, for example, go on strike in order to improve pay or working conditions,
a transnational corporation can simply shift work to another country where workers are more
compliant and have lower expectations.
Analysing the necessity of international economic and socio-political management in the face of
globalization, Samir Amir (1997), a renowned and strong voice on the issue of globalization and its
implications for third, world countries, says that the globalization of the capitalist system is certainly
nothing new, but it has undeniably taken a qualitative step forward during the most recent period.
Moreover, this deepening economic interdependence between nations occurs at a time when there is
a crisis of accumulation, and the post-war boom has given way to stagnation. The advance of
globalization has not been confined to trade, it also affects productive systems, technology, financial
markets, and many other aspects of social life. The new globalization erodes the efficiency of economic
management by nation-states though it does not abolish their existence.
Rise of ethnicity as a political response to economic globalization is yet another important dimension
of globalization. SamirAmin (ibid) says that the “present epoch is surely characterized by an
awakening, or reawakening marked by collective social identifications which are starkly different
from those defined by membership of a nation-state or a social class. Regionalism, linguistic and
cultural assertion, tribal or ethnic loyalties, devotion to a religious group, attachment to a local
community, are some of the multiple forms this reawakening has taken”. In Africa the dissolution of
national unity sometimes seems to have given way to ethnicity as a basis for the legitimate renewal of
competing forces. In India, in Afghanistan, in Eastern Europe, in the former Soviet Union and the
former Yugoslavia, even in Western Europe, in Spain, national unity has been put in question. When

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