Page 305 - DSOC201_SOCIAL_STRUCTURE_AND_SOCIAL_CHANGE_ENGLISH

Social Structure and Social Change

Notes providing more irrigation facilities. Industrial improvement is feasible by extensive re-equipment,
and by re-location. Singer (see, Jean Meynaud, 1963: 158) has further suggested that in change from
agricultural to industrial structure, the cost of industrilisation can be lowered in three ways: (i) by
avoiding urbanisation, which means bringing industry to villages so that there is less demand of
transport, water, etc., this will also discourage migration to towns; (ii) by concentrating on industries
requiring little capital; and (iii) by applying a technology which uses much labour and little capital.
This shows how improving the existing structure as well as attempting structural change is possible.
Wilbert Moore (1964) has referred to the impact of industry on social and economic structures in
following terms: (i) shift from agriculture to manufacture and services, (ii) occupational specilisation,
(iii) division of labour, (iv) coordination of specialised activities, (v) labour mobility, (vi) creation of
banks, (vii) extension of market, (viii) change in consumption, and (ix) change in network of social
relationships.

How can the existing industries be improved?

A.R. Desai (1959:127) has referred to four sociological problems of economic development in India:
(1) replacing the old social organisation and evolving new web of social relations; (2) modifying or
discarding old social institutions and developing new types of social institutions; (3) altering or
removing old forms of social control and creating new devices of social authority; and (4) revising or
liquidating old agencies of social change and determining new instrumentalities and factors of social
change.
The British kept India underdeveloped. Whatever industrial development was made, it was
predominantly regulated to suit the needs of British capitalism. Heavy industries were not permitted
to grow. While the British retarded the development of India’s economy, they also made a dent into
social organisation, social institutions, and social outlook of the Indian people. The traditional self-
sufficient village community which operated through the institutions of panchayat, caste and joint
family and was governed by custom, was almost fatally undermined. However, it was not replaced
by a new social framework, a new institutional matrix, or a new outlook. In the absence of these, the
introduction of the new legal system resulted in disorganising the then prevailing social relations.
The old principle of cooperation and coordination was replaced by the principle of competition which
set into motion a whirlpool in the social structure. After independence, the government undertook
the task of the reconstruction of economy through Five Year Plans. Economic development has created
on the one hand sociological problems (i.e., problems of social relations, social institutions, social
control, and agencies of social change) of negative character and on the other hand of positive character.
The negative type of sociological problems are the result of the persistence of old social institutions
like authoritarian joint family and traditional religious institutions, etc. These problems have also
emerged out of old forms of social control like supernatural sanctions, authoritarian norms, and
family, caste, tribal, religious and other customary sanctions. Besides, these have arisen out of the old
world outlook which was basically religious, fatalistic and anti-democratic in content. Lastly, these
have emanated from large-scale illiteracy, unemployment, corruption, casteism and poverty. The
positive type of problems are the result of the policies of industrialisation, commercialisation and
monetisation (i.e., introducing the money economy). Industrialisation has uprooted the old division
of labour, created new occupational patterns demanding new discipline and a new mode of living.
Further, modernisation—whether in agriculture or in industry—has separated man from the
traditional processes and techniques of his social units and from the skills he learned from his family.
Commercialisation has also created numerous problems. It has brought about a shift in power and
authority. Not farmers and producers but land and industry owners and administrators have become
the new ruling elite. In villages, the centre of political power has shifted from elders of upper castes
to usurers (moneylenders), merchants, landlords and officials. Lastly, monetisation is also fraught

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