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Unit 14: Social Change in Contemporary India

independent, the authority of the head of the household has weakened further. In the city, in many Notes
cases, along with men, their wives also have started working and earning. This has affected intra-
family relations to some extent. Finally, children have ceased to be economic assets and have become
liabilities. Although in a few cases, the use and abuse of child labour has also increased, law does not
permit children to work. At the same time, educational requirements have increased, lengthening
dependence upon parental support. Accommodation in the cities is expensive and child-care is
demanding. Thus, work and home have become separated due to industrialisation.
Some sociologists have, however, recently challenged the theory of emergence of nuclear families
due to industrialisation. This challenge is based on the results of empirical studies and the
documentation of the variety of family systems in different parts of the world. Studies by scholars like
M.S.A Rao, M.S. Gore, and Milton Singer have shown that jointness is more preferred and prevalent
in business communities, and many nuclear families maintain widespread kin ties. Several recent
researchers in the industrialised West have also emphasised the supportive role of kin and their
function of acting as a buffer between the family and the impersonal wider world (Abbi, 1970). Social
historians too have shown that the nuclear family was prevalent as a cultural norm in Europe and the
United States even before industrialisation. However, it has to be noted that the supportive role of the
kin does not have the compulsory character which is found in the family obligations of the Indian
nuclear family. The youngsters in the nuclear family still willingly follow the normal responsibility
towards the primary kin (such as parents and siblings), solidarity of the close kin, and some sense of
unity of the family, even though living in separate households.
All these changes have modified our family system. While the population movement from the rural
to the urban areas has led to decline in authoritarian power, growth of secularism has developed a
value system which emphasises individual initiative and responsibility. Individual now functions
without any restrictive familial controls. Formerly, when man worked in the family and all family
members helped him in his work, there was more intimacy among the family members but now
since he works in the industry away from the family, the intimacy in relations has been adversely
affected. The effect of industrialisation on the pattern of family relationship is also evident from the
decline in self-sufficiency of the family, and attitudinal changes toward family. Industrialisation
has, thus, contributed markedly to the creation of a new social and psychological setting in which
the survival of the early joint family with its authoritarian organisation has become very difficult.
The social profile of communities under the impact of industrialisation is indicative of many
dimensions of linkages and interactions among segments of region, culture, social categories and
communities. It is reflected in migration of people from one region to another which has contributed
to increase of bilingualism. The Census of India, 1991 placed bilinguilism to about 15 per cent, which
in reality has been estimated to be as high as 60 per cent in survey of communities. Interaction and
commonality among cultural regions too is reflected in shared cultural traits, which is also true for
large number of communities across regions and territories. Such cultural traits belong not only to
rituals and institutional practices but also to technologies of occupation, skills and division of labour.
Most communities have also moved away from their traditional occupations and show keen awareness
of developmental programmes sponsored by the government. This awareness, together with high
aspirations, introduces in the social system a measure of tension and conflict now manifest in various
dimensions of our social life.
14.5 Urbanisation

Urbanisation is the physical growth of urban areas from rural areas as a result of population
immigration to an existing urban area. Effects include change in density and administration services.
While the exact definition and population size of urbanised areas varies among different countries,
urbanisation is attributed to growth of cities. Urbanisation is also defined by the United Nations as
movement of people from rural to urban areas with population growth equating to urban migration.
The UN projects half the world population will live in urban areas at the end of 2008. In order to
explain the process of urbanisation we can discuss the following three aspects:
1. The demographic and spatial aspects
2. Economic aspects and
3. Socio-cultural aspects

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